Dark Genesis
by Fish on Land
Summary: Alipheese, the goddess of darkness, has tried to make intelligent life for a long time. Countless attempts, all failures... but then she discovers a strange race of hairless apes, far more intelligent than anything else she's encountered.
1. Chapter 1: The Dark Goddess

_Author's Note: This is my second fanfic, and is also a Monster Girl Quest fanfic like The Tyrant and the Hero. However, this will be thematically quite different._

* * *

Alipheese sighed as she looked down at the twisted mass of flesh in her hands. It had once been a large feline, but a casual observer would no longer be able to recognise it as such. It had half a dozen eyes scattered across its head, legs with too many joints, a deformed and shortened tail, and bare skin with just a few tufts of fur.

The mass of flesh twitched for a few more seconds, struggling to breathe, then ceased moving.

_Another failure,_ Alipheese thought. _I thought this kind would be a better base, due to the intelligence they employ in hunting their prey... but it seems it's still not enough. What am I missing?_

Setting the mass of flesh on the ground, Alipheese moved on, in search of her next experimental material.

This experiment was the latest in a series of experiments that Alipheese had been performing on for millions of years. Alipheese herself was an immortal being of pure dark energy, but she had taken a liking to the physical and ephemeral life of this planet. On occasion, she found an organism so interesting that she assimilated it into her own form. She had the large curving horns of a grazing ruminant, the antennae of a clawed decapod, the eyes of a feathered raptor, the tendrils and flowers of a creeping plant, the tail of an enormous purple serpent, and countless others, all combined into a shape that could never be formed by natural selection.

While she wandered around, Alipheese spotted something in the distance with her keen eyes, something she'd never seen before. Not wanting to alert it - if it was a new kind of animal - she used the power of darkness to become invisible and inaudible, then approached.

A collection of artificial structures, formed from logs and branches arranged together, and inhabited by... hairless apes? They gave off a similar scent to the other apes Alipheese had seen, but they were also clearly different. These hairless apes were completely bipedal and made use of numerous tools. Alipheese had seen normal apes use tools before, but these hairless ones took it to an entirely different level, cutting, grinding, shaving, refining their tools into more useful forms. Among these tools were pieces of animal hide and plant fibres, which the apes used to cover their bodies. Furthermore, the apes communicated with each other by making complex sounds, so complex that they were only matched by those of songbirds and cetaceans.

Alipheese continued watching the strange hairless apes for several days. Everything they did impressed her.

_Even though they are slow and weak, compared to most animals of their size, they more than compensate for that with their tools and cooperation,_ Alipheese thought. _And while their cooperation is less than that of eusocial insects, their larger size and longer lifespan gives them the advantage._

_These are what I was looking for._

Having made up her mind, Alipheese entered the village and began harvesting the hairless apes. Whenever she touched one, it was quickly sucked into her flesh. The apes made loud noises and scattered, no doubt confused by the unseen entity consuming their kin, but they could not escape her. Soon, she had harvested all of the apes save one - an adult female, crouched in one of the structures, presumably attempting to hide.

The females of this species produced milk to feed their young, like other mammals, but unlike other mammals their mammary glands remained engorged even outside of this activity. This particular female demonstrated this to a greater extent than her kin. Alipheese found this interesting... interesting enough for her to take this form for her own.

Alipheese consumed the screaming female and incorporated her body structure into her own. While her body remained serpentine from the waist down, from the waist up it transformed, gaining smooth hairless skin, a chest possessing the engorged mammary glands, a single pair of arms with flexibility and dexterity at the expense of strength, a head with weak jaws but a larger brain, a covering of long hairs that extended from the top of the head. However, the skin of this new upper body was purple while its hair was white, both relics from organisms she'd previously consumed.

After some more tweaking, Alipheese was satisfied with her appearance. She re-added the horns and the flowers to her head, feeling that they complemented the ape features well. The fingers on her hands were longer than the baseline, as this was more convenient for her work.

Now possessing the genetic material of the intelligent apes, Alipheese resumed her experiments.

-ooo-

"More failures?" Alipheese muttered to herself. "It shouldn't be possible. What am I missing?"

It had been five years since Alipheese had first harvested the apes. In that time she had made thousands of creations, varying in external appearance, all with a brain that perfectly resembled its basis, yet none of them were successful. Her creations were no more intelligent than normal apes, being unable to use any tools beyond sticks and rocks, or communicate in anything more than simple grunts and gestures. All she had learned was the apes' language - they seemed to refer to their own kind as "humans".

Suddenly, Alipheese sensed someone approaching - another of the humans. She decided to try something new and did not attempt to hide herself.

This particular human was an adult male, and relatively young. Upon seeing Alipheese, he demonstrated a mix of emotions: fear and confusion, which were understandable, but also something else... sexual arousal.

_It considers this body attractive?_ Alipheese wondered. _It's plausible, considering that I based it on the female of the same species. Hmm... if I go along with this..._

-ooo-

Alipheese uncoiled her body, letting the dead body of the male human fall to the ground.

_As I suspected, there is something special in these humans,_ Alipheese thought. _Whatever it is, I can't manipulate it directly like I can flesh or dark energy. However, it seems to be the key to their intelligence. And now that I know about it..._

Within her body, Alipheese attempted to use the human's sperm to fertilise her own eggs. It took thousands of attempts, but eventually she succeeded... partially.

_I've formed the zygote... but judging from its genome, it will not develop properly into a complete, intelligent organism on its own. It seems to be due to my own contribution of genes... an artificial collection of multiple organisms can hardly produce viable offspring. But it does resemble a cancerous cell... hmm..._

After making some modifications to the zygote, Alipheese acquired another adult male human, who had been sleeping in his hut, and injected the zygote into him. If all went as expected, the zygote would spread throughout his tissue, following the existing structure of his body, and transform the human into her long-sought goal: an intelligent being of darkness.

The attempt failed. The male human flailed about and screamed as his body was consumed by rampant tumours.

Alipheese sighed. It seemed like her goal was impossible.

However, she remembered the female human whom she'd consumed to create her current appearance. She decided to try one more time.

After making another zygote, Alipheese acquired an adult female human, one who somewhat resembled the previous one, especially around the chest. She injected the zygote and waited.

The female human also flailed about and screamed, but she did not die. Slowly, surely, her body transformed.

A pair of membranous wings, like those of a bat, grew from the human's back, tearing apart the dress she was wearing. Then a second, then a third, resulting in three pairs of wings. Two horns grew from her head, though these were straight in contrast to Alipheese's. A tail, covered in smooth skin instead of fur or scales, grew from her lower back. Both her skin and hair became white in colour.

_So in addition to the human traits, she expresses traits of other organisms, which must come from my contribution,_ Alipheese analysed dispassionately.

The flailing and screaming stopped. The former human raised her body unsteadily. She examined her naked body, reacting in confusion and horror at the new features, then noticed Alipheese's presence. She backed away until she hit a nearby tree.

"Who - Who are you!?" the former human cried out. "What have you done to me!"

Alipheese slithered forward, already knowing what to say in response. Her investigations of humans told her of the importance of names... and she had come up with the ideal names in this situation.

"You may call me Alipheese," Alipheese said. "And you are the first of my new lineage. You are my first monster."

* * *

_AN: As MGQ fans will have figured out, this takes place in the distant past, not long after the creation of humans by Ilias. This time period has been touched on in previous fics, but I'm planning to depict this in more detail._


	2. Chapter 2: From Humanity

_AN: A word of warning, this chapter is even darker than the first one._

* * *

Alipheese had closed her eyes and was pretending to sleep. In truth, she didn't need sleep at all – as an entity born from darkness, her body didn't need to spend time resting – but the act was enough to fool her first monster, who was currently attempting to sneak away.

This was the third such attempt. Soon after her transformation, she had stopped listening to anything Alipheese had to say and had done her best to return to her village.

"Stop," Alipheese called out. "There is no point trying to escape."

Rather than listen, the monster spread her wings and tried to fly away. But she'd only had her new form for less than a day, so her flight was clumsy and she soon collided with a nearby tree, then fell to the ground. And she wouldn't have been able to escape even if she was experienced at flying – Alipheese had caught, and assimilated, birds who were masters of the sky.

As she approached her monster, Alipheese inspected her injuries. _Some cuts and scrapes – less than an unmodified animal would suffer, but more than I would upon experiencing such an impact. It – no, I might as well use 'she', as the humans do – is less durable than I am. I might modify her further in the future._

_Come to think of it, I never asked for her name, even though I introduced myself._

Alipheese paused briefly. She had been observing humans from afar for days, but now was the first time she had interacted with another intelligent being. Her social skills were therefore lacking… something she would need to correct if she wanted this experiment to succeed.

"What is your name?" Alipheese asked. "I apologise for not asking you earlier."

The monster didn't reply, instead frantically searching around in the surrounding leaf litter. She picked up a sharp rock and used it to cut her own throat.

It took a few seconds for Alipheese to realise that her monster had attempted to kill herself. She hurried over and laid a hand on the bleeding wound. Over the course of a few seconds, the wound was sterilised of pathogens, the blood was returned to its vessels, and the wound was sealed up so perfectly that no traces were left. Healing such a minor wound was trivial using dark energy – in the past, Alipheese had experimentally dismembered herself, then reattached herself with no lasting effects.

"I don't understand why you would do such a thing, but don't bother," Alipheese said. "I won't allow you to come to any harm, not even of your own making."

The monster looked up at Alipheese, her eyes containing an emotion that the dark elemental did not recognise. "You… don't understand at all."

"I do not, so would you enlighten me?" Alipheese said.

The monster sighed and got to her feet. "Fine. First, my name is Minagi. And the reason why I try running away and killing myself… imagine this. One day, you go to sleep as normal, then you suddenly feel more pain than you ever felt before in your life. The pain stops, but then you see that your body has… completely changed."

Minagi gestured at her horns, wings and tail. However, Alipheese found this attitude confusing.

"But your appearance has not changed that significantly," Alipheese said. "The structure of your face, your torso and your limbs are unchanged."

"Maybe by your standards, but for me, this _is_ sigin - significant," Minagi said. "And just what _are_ you, anyway?"

Alipheese had prepared an explanation for just this situation. "I am the living embodiment of an element, a force of nature such as fire, water, or light, though in my case I embody darkness. I am darkness given intelligence and physical form."

"That's – okay, I'll assume you're telling the truth about that," Minagi said. "Why do you look like – like _that_?"

"My appearance is due to assimilating many different organisms over my life," Alipheese said. "Whenever I encounter an animal, plant, or fungus that attracts my interest, I take it into my body."

Minagi blinked, a growing horror on her face. "Wait, then the reason you look human is – is because you ate a human!?"

"Indeed," Alipheese said. "Though, strictly speaking, I assimilated approximately two hundred humans, but only chose to display the features of one."

Minagi turned and attempted to escape yet again. This time, Alipheese didn't even let her get a head start. She opened her mouth and a long tongue shot out, coiled around Minagi and reeled her in.

"I will not say this again," Alipheese declared sternly. "You cannot escape. Nor will I allow you to harm yourself. Cease these futile attempts."

Minagi screamed and struggled, though she could not break free of the powerful muscle.

Alipheese sighed. She now understood why most animals were solitary in behaviour – sociality could be truly frustrating.

-ooo-

The next morning, Minagi had quieted down. However, Alipheese could still sense a turbulent mixture of anger, sorrow and frustration from her. Still, she seemed willing to listen, so Alipheese took the opportunity to explain her current experiment.

"While I have encountered and assimilated countless organisms throughout my life, I never encountered one who was intelligent like myself. Simply put, I never had someone else I could talk to. I therefore spent the last two and a half million years trying to create it. But all of my attempts failed. I identified the sections of the brain responsible for intelligence and expanded them, but this never produced any significant increase in intelligence."

"…The brain?" Minagi said. "But don't we use our hearts to think?"

"No, intelligence originates in the brain, the heart only circulates blood – but that is irrelevant to this discussion," Alipheese said. "Returning to the topic, I had only failures for millions of years – then I saw humans for the first time. I realised that your kind had just what I needed. So I assimilated a village of humans and began using their genetic material for further experiments."

"And you never thought of trying to just _talk_ to us," Minagi said.

"It would be pointless, as humans have a limited lifespan and cannot control their bodies as I can," Alipheese said. "I would never be able to interact with them as an equal. But you, after my modifications, are different. From my analysis, I've determined that you no longer suffer from biological aging. As long as you do not suffer from significant trauma or malnutrition, you will never die."

Minagi remained silent, presumably digesting this revelation.

"However, I was still unable to create intelligence even with knowledge of the human brain," Alipheese continued. "Giving apes the same brain structure, and modifying the rest of their bodies to accommodate this, produced no results. I might have given up altogether, but I encountered a human male by chance. He showed arousal to my appearance, so I thought of trying sexual reproduction."

Minagi's jaw dropped. She looked Alipheese up and down. "No person would ever want to lay with – with something that looks like you!"

"Regardless of what you believe, that is the truth," Alipheese said. "The human did not survive the intercourse, but he gave me what I wanted, his essence. However, I wasn't able to use this to birth a child directly, presumably due to my mixed nature. I therefore decided to try implanting my zygote – my undeveloped offspring – into an existing organism, where it could potentially grow by following the existing structure. My first attempt was on a human male, who simply perished. My second attempt was on a human female, resulting in your creation."

"So all this – killing hundreds of people without feeling a thing – was just because you wanted a friend?" Minagi said angrily. "You – "

Suddenly, Minagi stopped. She began to display a range of physiological changes, such as an increased heart rate, tremors, and flushing, which Alipheese recognised as being the signs of sexual arousal.

"Wait – why is this happening now!?" Minagi said.

"Interesting – it appears to be an unexpected side effect of the transformation," Alipheese said. "Elevated libido – this is convenient."

"How is this convenient!?" Minagi asked furiously.

"It facilitates creating more of your new race," Alipheese said. "After all, I was not planning to stop at having only one intelligent creation."

"You think I'll – go along with your disgusting plans!?" Minagi said.

However, Minagi's arousal did not subside. On the contrary, it increased over the next few minutes, to the point that she had trouble remaining standing.

"If this continues, your health will be compromised," Alipheese said. "Wait here."

Alipheese grew the silk glands of a spider in her arms and proceeded to bind Minagi to a large tree using several layers of webs. She then rushed towards the nearest village – the same village she'd taken Minagi from.

_She has proven quite disagreeable,_ Alipheese thought. _If I bring her a human from her former social group, it may improve her opinion of me._

Hiding herself from perception again, Alipheese snuck into the village and searched around until she found a human male of a similar age to Minagi. Conveniently, he was currently alone in his hut and crying about some recent misfortune. Alipheese quickly wrapped him up in her flesh, left the village and returned to where she'd left Minagi.

"I have found you a suitable mate," Alipheese announced, as she released the human male onto the ground.

"What's going on!?" the man cried. He caught sight of Alipheese and screamed.

"Ark? Is that you?" Minagi said.

"…Is that you, Minagi?" Ark said, noticing the person in question. "You're still alive? I thought you'd been taken by an evil spirit!"

"That's basically what happened – anyway, you have to get away from here!" Minagi said.

Alipheese cut off Minagi's webs but then raised one hand, conjuring up an invisible dome-shaped barrier. This would keep the human or the monster from escaping.

"Do not try to undermine me further," Alipheese warned Minagi. "Now, if you two are acquainted, then you should have no issues with mating."

"M-Mating?" Ark said, confused. "Wait, what happened to you? You look… different."

Minagi flinched as if physically attacked. "It's her fault… anyway, you have to get away – I – I can't hold back much longer!"

Ark gulped. From his reaction, he'd now noticed that Minagi was very obviously aroused.

Alipheese had to wait five more seconds before Minagi finally gave into her desire and pounced on the man.

After ten minutes, the deed was done. Minagi stood up, literally glowing with energy. Ark was now no more than a withered husk, as if he'd been left in a desert for years.

_I suppose I should ask about her current status,_ Alipheese thought. "How do you feel?"

Minagi looked at her creator and laughed, clearly exhilarated. "I feel amazing! It's unbelievable – I've had sex before, but it was nothing like this!"

"So the transformation comes with increased sexual pleasure as well…" Alipheese noted. "Is there anything else?"

"I was hungry and tired before, but now I have so much energy!" Minagi said. "I feel like I could run, fly for days without stopping! If this is what it feels like to be a – what did you call me before? – a monster, then maybe it isn't so bad!"

"That rush of energy is the result of consuming human male essence," Alipheese said. "I experienced the same when I mated with a human male, though the energy was miniscule in comparison to my own, so it was not noteworthy."

"I see… but how come it only happened now?" Minagi asked. "I've never heard of anything like this happening before."

"This is pure speculation, but from our two cases, I believe that only beings of darkness can derive nourishment from this source," Alipheese said. "It may be similar to how a herbivore, such as an aurochs, can feed on grass, but a carnivore, such as a lion, cannot."

"Well, whatever the reason, I can't get enough of this!" Minagi said. "Hey, Ark, ready for another – "

Minagi screamed when she realised that her partner was dead.

"How – how did this happen!?" Minagi said, cradling the corpse. "Quick, you have to help him!"

"As I explained before, this also happened in my case," Alipheese said. "Presumably, while beings of darkness can gain significant energy from mating with a human male, doing so is also fatal to said male. And while I can heal injuries and illnesses, I cannot revive the dead."

"You knew that this would happen – how dare you!" Minagi said, charging towards her creator.

Alipheese extended her tail, coiling it around Minagi and firmly restraining her.

"I did," Alipheese said. "And I refrained from stopping you because I wanted you to learn a lesson. You are no longer human. You are a monster, a being far beyond humans. Remember this."

Minagi broke down weeping.

Alipheese assimilated Ark's corpse, then moved on, still holding her experiment in her tail.

-ooo-

For the next week, Minagi refused to speak to Alipheese or eat anything. Her hair became stringy, her skin dry and cracked, her figure thin and skeletal. Her arms, face and neck became covered with scratches due to her efforts to distract herself from her growing libido. And the effects went beyond the merely physical. She began producing an aura similar to that produced by certain animals when making courtship displays.

The last of these symptoms attracted Alipheese's attention, even if it couldn't affect someone of her power. The main characteristic of dark energy, its mutative effect on living tissue, could be used to rapidly adapt to one's situation – this was something Alipheese had used herself, for example by entering water and growing gill-like structures to breathe. Minagi seemed to be enacting the same phenomenon, but unconsciously – while her mind refused to eat, her body devised an adaptation to lure in prey.

However, Alipheese's patience came to an end. She'd allowed Minagi's selfishness so that she could gather data on how starvation occurred in a monster, but no more.

"Enough," Alipheese said. "It's time for you to feed."

Alipheese picked up a freshly-killed rabbit and brought it to Minagi's body, forcibly merging the two. Minagi made no attempt to resist. Her figure filled out again and her vital signs returned to more normal values. However, she hadn't fully returned to her previous state. For one thing, she was still emitting the lust-inducing aura.

"Your libido is not simply for the sake of reproduction… it seems that you require sexual intercourse as much as you do food or water," Alipheese speculated. "In that case…"

Alipheese picked up Minagi and then extended her own wings: one large pair from her waist, three smaller pairs from her snake tail. She took to the air and flew rapidly, soon arriving at Minagi's village.

"Wait, why are we…" Minagi said, shocked. "No, no, no, no, no…"

Alipheese hid herself from perception and deposited Minagi in the centre of the village, in sight of dozens of humans. She then rose into the air and watched the proceedings.

First, the humans stared in shock at Minagi. This was understandable, as they had were looking at someone who resembled the one who'd inexplicably disappeared from their village, but with clearly inhuman features. Minagi looked ashamed and tried to stand up, but she was too weakened from starvation.

Next, the humans all began showing signs of desire. To Alipheese's mild surprise, this was not limited to the males of the optimum reproductive age: the younger and older males, along with the females, all showed desire as well. However, the youngest of the humans didn't react beyond showing confusion – presumably, their brains were too immature to feel sexual desire.

Then the humans approached Minagi and surrounded her.

-ooo-

Three days later, Alipheese landed. The village was now filled with piles upon piles of corpses, all with looks of utter bliss on their faces. The only villagers who weren't among the corpses were the youngest ones, and this was because Alipheese had already assimilated them on the first day. She now went around doing the same to the rest.

Minagi was sitting in the centre of the village, looking absolutely satisfied. Moreover, her appearance had changed. The left half of her hair glowed with faint purple light, while the right half glowed blue. Her skin was covered in distinctive patterns, an array of lines and curves that began at her shoulders and extended all the way down to her ankles. Finally, as Alipheese ascertained using her keen senses, Minagi was now pregnant – with twins, in fact.

_The offspring… presumably, they will be closer to humans than their mother, though I can't be certain at this stage,_ Alipheese thought. _I'll need to wait until they're born._

"How do you feel now?" Alipheese asked.

Minagi smiled, a smile that Alipheese had never seen on any human. "To be honest? I'm feeling ashamed of myself… for not realising what you were trying to tell me sooner."

"So you've changed your mind?" Alipheese said.

"I have, though maybe not in the way you were expecting," Minagi said. "During that amazing _celebration_, I discovered one of the things my new body can do: sense the thoughts and feelings of people. And because of that, I could tell that _everyone_ here experienced the greatest pleasure possible – in fact, more pleasure than they would have felt in the rest of their lives!"

Minagi raised her head and laughed triumphantly. She then picked up a shrivelled corpse, one of the few that Alipheese had yet to assimilate, and gently touched its face.

"You know, when I was human, I wasn't anything special. I did get a few looks because of my chest," Minagi said, poking one of her hypertrophic breasts, "but I never expected to do anything important. But now? I got the chance to make everyone – almost everyone, happy. And I'm guessing you've figured this out already, but soon I'll have two children, who'll be able to experience the same amazing things as I have."

_If she can sense that, she is certainly starting to understand the potential of her body,_ Alipheese thought. She asked out loud, "So you are now willing to follow me?"

"Yes, but with just two conditions," Minagi said, putting the corpse back down. "First, I want you to promise that you'll do everything you can to make sure that these children of mine are born and raised safely. Second, I want to spread this kind of pleasure to everyone we meet, so that nobody has to go to their graves without experiencing it. Is that fine?"

Alipheese considered these conditions. The first was something she was already planning to do. The second was more complicated. On the one hand, there was the possibility that Minagi's unrivalled lust would interfere with her experiments. On the other hand, this was as agreeable as her creation had ever been. Eventually, she acquiesced.

After Alipheese finished assimilating the corpses, the two of them left the now-deserted village and headed towards the south.

"So where are we going now?" Minagi asked.

"Towards the nearest coast, where I plan on creating my second monster," Alipheese replied.

"Are you going to use a human again?" Minagi asked.

"No, I'll be trying a different organism this time, most likely an aquatic one, to see if my techniques still work," Alipheese said. "I can't predict how it will turn out, but it will certainly be different in shape to you or me."

"Hmm… in that case, I'd like a name," Minagi said.

"A name? But you already have one," Alipheese said.

"No, I meant a name for my kind – for both myself and my future children," Minagi said. "You've come up a name for your creations in general, 'monsters', but from what you've just said you're going to be making several different kinds of monsters. I want a name for my kind, specifically."

Alipheese deemed this an acceptable request. The two of them traded suggestions as they travelled.

"How about 'succubus'?" Minagi suggested eventually. "It sounds similar to the name of a certain sex position, so it seems appropriate."

Alipheese agreed, and so Minagi, the first succubus, was born.

* * *

_AN: It occurred to me that I didn't say anything about what Minagi was wearing in the first chapter, so I went back to fix this, also adding a chapter title while I was at it._


	3. Chapter 3: From the Depths

_AN: Here's the next chapter. I would have released this sooner, but I was waiting for Torotoro to release their next update, which would hopefully contain information on the Ancestor shown in this chapter. It's been a month and there's still nothing, so I decided to release this anyway._

* * *

They arrived at an east-facing beach. Alipheese had been to locations like this many times before – marine ecosystems had considerable biomass and many species that could not be found in terrestrial ecosystems, useful for her experiments. Her newest creation, on the other hand, did not seem to enjoy the prospect.

"I've never even seen the sea before, only heard of it from some of the people my tribe traded with," Minagi said. "I'm staying right here on dry land, thanks."

"You cannot swim?" Alipheese said, confused. "I saw some of your kin swimming in the local waterways."

"I can, but those were just small ponds and streams, the current wasn't strong enough to push you off balance, and they were shallow enough for you to stand on the bottom and keep your head above the surface," Minagi explained. She gestured towards the waves crashing onto the beach. "Nothing like _this._"

Alipheese considered what to do. She could simply circumvent her creation's free will again – it was a simple matter to modify her so she had gills and a more streamlined shape – but decided against it. From her experience of both Minagi and humans, they responded best to methods of manipulation other than force. For example, when a human desired something possessed by another human, they usually traded one of their own possessions for it, whereas those who stole from others were ostracised by their community. For another, more direct example, Minagi was content and obedient when Alipheese allowed her to gorge herself on human essence, but became disobedient when her freedom was restricted in any way.

"Very well, you may remain here," Alipheese said. "However, in the future you should consider improving your swimming skills. It may eventually be necessary for you to accompany me on one of these occasions."

"Fine," Minagi said. "How long do you plan on being down there?"

Alipheese looked at the sun, which was currently near its zenith, then recalled the human method of measuring time. "Three hours at most. During my absence, should you become hungry again, you may feed – there is a village to the east of here."

"I already sensed them, and was planning on asking that, but thanks!" Minagi said, licking her lips.

Having fulfilled her social obligations to her creation, Alipheese slithered forward and entered the sea. She withdrew her hair, horns, flowers and enlarged mammary glands into her body, while flattening her tail laterally so it could better push against the water.

_Hmm… I can modify my body to suit my environment with ease, but it seems that Minagi finds it more difficult,_ Alipheese thought. _It is possible that my future creations will encounter the same issues. _

Alipheese arrived at a coral reef, an ecosystem with a considerable diversity of organisms. She began exploring the reef thoroughly, probing each nook and cranny with long tentacles.

_Perhaps I could try the opposite approach, altering the environment – at least on a local scale – to suit the body? It would be more difficult, since dark energy is better suited for modifying living flesh than inanimate matter, but if I devote some time to it, I should be able to find a way._

A large shark swam into the range of Alipheese's senses. She dismissed it immediately as an experimental subject. Sharks were impressive physically, being the apex predator in many ecosystems, but their intelligence was relatively low. Alipheese had been alive since the evolution of the very first shark, hundreds of millions of years ago, and she had never witnessed one as intelligent as an ape. She assimilated the shark to increase her stock of genetic material, then moved on.

_First, the issue of allowing a terrestrial organism to live underwater. The most obvious barrier is the inability to obtain oxygen from water – this could be solved with a filter over the breathing orifices, one that excludes water while permitting exchange of gases._

Alipheese turned her attention to the coral itself. Each coral formation was not an individual plant, as the humans believed, but rather a block of stone covered in tiny animals that were closely related to jellyfish. The individual coral polyps were connected to each other by a thin layer of living tissue. In theory, this could be modified to include nervous tissue, potentially resulting in intelligence… but the result would still be immobile and hence unsuited for Alipheese's purposes. There was potential in this line of study, however.

_Aside from that, there's the issues of vision, thermoregulation, pressure and salinity. Vision is easily solved, simply use a light source like many deep-sea organisms do. Likewise thermoregulation, a simple decrease in the thermal conductivity of the surrounding water would make it possible to remain suitably warm even in polar waters. Pressure is more of a problem – I will need to study the biology of marine organisms further before – _

A blur of movement appeared in the corner of Alipheese's eye. She scanned the reef until she discovered the organism responsible: a large octopus, currently using its visual camouflage to hide.

_Octopi are certainly intelligent – indeed, unless my memory is failing me, they are the most intelligent invertebrate I have ever encountered. Their nervous system is highly developed and they are capable of using tools. My previous experiments in augmenting their intelligence failed, and their short lifespan would have been an issue even if I succeeded… but perhaps my new method will work._

Alipheese first checked to confirm that the octopus was female, remembering her previous mistake, then sedated it using a pulse of dark energy and picked it up. She swam back toward the beach, gathering a range of other animals along the way, and surfaced.

As Alipheese transformed back into a form suited for moving on land, she saw that Minagi had given in to the combination of hunger and lust that was her primary desire. She had acquired three men from the nearby village and was currently feeding on them.

"Oh, you're back?" Minagi said, stopping her feeding. She looked at the collection of animals in Alipheese's hands and tentacles. "Why so many? Were you not able to make up your mind?"

"I have made a decision, I will use the octopus as my next subject," Alipheese said, holding up the animal in question. "The rest are simply to provide biomass."

After hearing this, Minagi looked at the octopus. Her face expressed an emotion that Alipheese recognised as interest.

"Do you wish to attempt intercourse with it?" Alipheese asked.

"What!?" Minagi shouted. "No! Why would you even think that!?"

"During my previous observations of humans, I saw two cases of a human mating with a different species of animal," Alipheese said.

"Okay, that… was more information than I needed to know, but it's not what I was thinking!" Minagi said. "I was just wondering why you chose an octopus in the first place!"

"Ah, my mistake," Alipheese said. "That would explain why those two individuals were ostracised by their kin when they were discovered – to answer your question, I chose it because it is unusually intelligent for an invertebrate – for an animal without bones."

Minagi looked at the octopus sceptically. "Well, if that's what you want, go ahead. I'll be relaxing over here."

As Minagi resumed her previous activity, Alipheese began her experiment. She fused the octopus with the rest of the animals, carefully altering the latter to ensure tissue compatibility, resulting in a single octopus with a disproportionately large brain, as well as lungs to allow it to function on land. She then grew a hollow tentacle with a sharp tip, modelled after the ovipositor of a parasitoid wasp, and injected a zygote into the octopus.

Over the course of the next few minutes, the octopus transformed. The body shifted into a humanoid body plan, with a distinct head, jointed arms with five-fingered hands, and – even more inexplicably – a pair of engorged mammary glands. From the waist down it retained its original tentacles. Its chromatophores cycled through a series of colours, eventually settling on pale yellow for the humanoid parts and pink for the cephalopod parts. Hair began growing from the top of its head; light brown at the tips, black for the rest of its length.

Minagi stood up, having finished her meal. "Wait, she looks – not that different from me. Is this supposed to happen?"

"It is not," Alipheese said, intrigued by the nature of the transformation. "It seems that the human genes are unexpectedly dominant in the phenotype. Though I cannot work out why…"

The former octopus' hair finished growing, resulting in it being waist-length. Her eyes slowly opened, revealing golden irises.

"She's waking up – wait, what should we call her?" Minagi asked.

"The humans local to this area apparently call this species of octopus 'fisherman's irritant', since it is a common unwanted catch in their nets," Alipheese said. "Perhaps – "

"Absolutely not," Minagi said emphatically. "A name like that is just pitiful. A name should be something meaningful, like, say… 'Hiruko'!"

"'Hiruko'?"

"It's the name of a figure from my tribe's folklore, a baby who was born with no bones in her legs and so couldn't walk," Minagi explained. "But despite that, she was born with a unique ability to control water."

"Strictly speaking, this particular experiment is capable of moving on land," Alipheese said. "However, I see your point. 'Hiruko' it is."

With that settled, Minagi approached the newly named Hiruko and bent down. With a gentle expression and voice, she said, "Hello, how do you feel?"

Hiruko sprang up and skittered away across the sand. After making some distance between herself and the other two, she curled up her body and attempted to camouflage herself again. However, her hair remained the same colour, being only dead tissue.

"She's terrified… just as I was at first," Minagi said. "It's no wonder, seeing how major the change is."

"Even aside from that, octopi have entirely different methods of socialising than humans," Alipheese said. "Their main method of communication is through changing their own colour patterns. While you may be able to do this eventually, for now, leave this to me."

Alipheese quickly went back to the sea and gathered three large crabs, which snapped their pincers at her in their desperate attempts to escape. She changed her skin to a paler shade of purple to signal that she had no hostile intent, then slowly approached Hiruko.

Fortunately, it seemed that Hiruko still retained some of her old instincts when it came to communication. She relaxed her body – though only slightly – and watched Alipheese carefully.

Alipheese deposited the three crabs near Hiruko, then withdrew.

The crabs began scuttling back to the sea, only for Hiruko to snatch them up with her tentacles. While she no longer had the beak of a baseline octopus, she didn't let that stop her, simply biting into the crabs with her human teeth.

It took less than half a minute for the new monster soon finished her meal. She was still wary of the other two, but she no longer attempted to flee or hide from them. In fact, her tentacles were waving about in a manner that suggested curiosity.

Alipheese approached her second creation, beckoning for Minagi to follow behind her. She approached Hiruko and slowly stretched out a hand. The new monster looked at the hand, clearly uncertain of what the gesture meant, but eventually grasped it with her own. Alipheese then had Minagi do the same and, after a few seconds of hesitation, Hiruko grasped her hand as well.

"There, we won't hurt you," Minagi said.

Hiruko tilted her head. She opened and closed her mouth several times, eventually making an incoherent moan, then touched her own throat in surprise.

"Baseline octopi have no ability to speak, lacking any sound-producing organ, but with practice she should learn to do so," Alipheese explained for the benefit of the succubus. "Let us move on."

The group of three began moving towards the nearby human village, with the new monster holding onto the hands of the other two. Alipheese also assimilated the three human corpses that Minagi had left behind.

There was no sense in wasting genetic material, after all.

-ooo-

Over the next few weeks, Hiruko received an education – mainly from Minagi, as Alipheese preferred to stay back and observe. Hiruko learned at an extremely rapid pace: at two weeks, she was comparable to a human child of around ten years of age, while at four weeks she was comparable to an adult human. She seemed to learn much faster than her previous creation – though this could be an artefact of Minagi originally being an adult human. Alipheese hypothesised that this was due to her octopus lifespan – an animal that only had a few years to live would need to learn very quickly.

During this time, Hiruko ate a diet of animal and plant matter, showing that she had gained a human's dietary range. She did not need to feed on human men, suggesting that Minagi's need to do so was a random mutation rather than something inherent to the monster transformation. However, Alipheese would need more samples to be certain of this.

Another thing that interested Alipheese was how devoted Minagi was to the job of educating her younger sister. True, she spent half of her waking time feeding on the enthralled humans of the village, but spent the other half talking to Hiruko and showing her what the world was like. It seemed that she had maternal instincts that had survived her transformation. This led Alipheese to wonder if she should try acting more maternally to her current and future creations, as it seemed to encourage their loyalty.

Finally, there was the issue of what to call the new race represented by Hiruko. After considerable discussion, in which Minagi shot down Alipheese's suggestions for various reasons, this was settled by the person in question. While she was still learning language, Hiruko combined various sounds to make new words, one of which, 'scylla', she liked enough to suggest as a name.

Today, they were in a house that had previously belonged to the village's chief. Minagi was sitting on a chair and talking to Hiruko, who was underneath the table – she was most comfortable in enclosed spaces, a relic of her octopus heritage. Alipheese was sitting in a corner and observing.

"Another good way to pass the time is to try making something with your own hands," Minagi said, holding up a wooden figurine. "This one was carved by a nice young man called Balthon, who was _very_ skilled with his – ahem, ignore that. Anyway, this was carved out of wood using a knife, though other materials like bone and soft rock can also be used. Do you want to try?"

Hiruko nodded. Minagi squealed, something she'd been doing frequently in response to many of the younger monster's actions, and handed her a block of wood and a crafting knife.

"Just be careful, alright?" Minagi said.

"I'm not a child anymore, Minnie," Hiruko said, her skin changing to a deep red to show her annoyance. "Don't look down on me. I can use a knife without hurting myself."

Minagi didn't seem hurt by these words at all. On the contrary, she looked happy that Hiruko had called her by this nickname.

Hiruko began carving. Her dextrous tentacles, possessing suckers all along their length and being capable of bending in countless different ways, allowed her to manipulate the knife and wood in ways that no human could.

This was the latest in a long list of hobbies that Hiruko had become interested in, with some other examples being fishing, picking flowers, watching birds, and constricting humans with her tentacles to listen to the sounds they made. The scylla was filled with a seemingly boundless curiosity, always looking for new things to enjoy.

Alipheese would have preferred to keep observing. However, she sensed a group of large animals approaching the village, which she soon realised were more humans. They were either traders or had come to investigate the monster takeover of the village.

"There are humans approaching," Alipheese said, moving towards the door. "Wait here, I will deal with them."

"Make sure you take them alive!" Minagi called out after her.

Alipheese left the house. She passed by several enthralled humans, who were giggling and moaning uncontrollably, and met the new arrivals: five male humans, all carrying spears, who flinched as she entered their field of vision.

"What the hell is that thing!?" One human exclaimed.

"It's – it's an evil spirit, it must have attacked the village!" Another human replied.

"Calm yourselves, I am an elemental of darkness," Alipheese said, raising her hands to show that she was unarmed and hence to appear unthreatening. "There is no need to – "

The humans did not listen, instead thrusting their spears at Alipheese. The tips of the spears shattered harmlessly against her skin. Sighing, Alipheese sedated them all and returned to the house with them.

"I have returned," Alipheese announced as she entered. "Did anything notable happen in my absence?"

"No, Minnie just asked me what I thought about you," Hiruko said. "I said that I owed you for giving me intelligence. I also haven't finished my carving yet. Anyway, what are you going to do with those humans?"

"The same as we did with the humans already in this village – Minagi will feed on them until they expire, then I will assimilate them," Alipheese replied.

"Speaking of which… I think it's time for her to get involved as well," Minagi said.

Alipheese considered this suggestion, then nodded. "Indeed. Her reproductive organs are now mature. The sooner she begins, the sooner there will be more of her race."

"Wait, what are you two talking about?" Hiruko asked.

"Do you know what I've been doing in my spare time?" Minagi said, smiling lustfully.

"You said that you were mating and eating at the same time," Hiruko replied. "I understand the former, but I don't see how you were doing the latter. It always takes a while before the humans die, how is that 'eating'?"

"Well, it's one of the many advantages of being a monster," Minagi said. "It's something that can't be described with words, it has to be experienced. Are you interested?"

Hiruko spent a few seconds thinking, then nodded.

"Well then, just relax and let me show you what to do…"

Alipheese slipped out of the house. Giving her creations moments of privacy now and then would help keep them loyal to her. It meant giving up some data in the short term, but loyal experimental subjects would provide more data in the long term.

Once the sparks of the humans' lives vanished, Alipheese went back in. The five humans were now corpses on the floor, twisted into shapes that were impossible if their skeletons were intact. A quick examination confirmed that Hiruko was now pregnant as well.

"I'm happy to announce that little Hiruko now knows the pleasure of sex!" Minagi said. "Though if she had controlled her strength better, these men would have had a more pleasant final experience, and they would have lasted longer."

Hiruko lowered her head, bright pink with embarrassment. "Sorry…" she mumbled.

"As long as you keep it in mind, it's okay," Minagi said, pulling her sister into a hug. "If you're up for more, there's still plenty more humans for you practice on! You could try the women – they may not have essence to feed on, but they're still plenty of fun to play with!"

"Mmm… maybe later," Hiruko said. "It _does_ feel good, but if I was doing this all the time, I'd get bored pretty quickly."

Minagi was dumbfounded by this response, but Alipheese had been expecting it. In her previous experiments with octopi, she'd found that they were one of the few animals who experienced boredom if not constantly provided with new sources of stimulation. It seemed to be the driving force behind their curiosity.

"Well… if you're really not interested in more, that's fine," Minagi said, though she still shook her head in disbelief. "Anyway, your next lesson will be outdoors, at the nearby hill."

The trio left the building and began moving towards the hill. But as they passed by the enthralled humans, Hiruko glanced at them and said, "Hey… all of the humans I've seen cover their bodies in clothes. Why don't we?"

"Oh, that? That's something I haven't taught you yet," Minagi said. "Humans need to wear clothes because they're much more fragile than us. Their skin is easily scratched and they can't tolerate too much heat or too much cold. Although… they sometimes wear it because they want to look good."

"In that case, I want to try it out," Hiruko said.

After a little searching, they found a dull brown dress that would fit Hiruko… if she was human, that is. The dress was too tight around the chest and, due to the bulk of Hiruko's octopus lower half, it bunched up above her hips.

"I could get it to fit with a bit of work, but are you really sure you want this?" Minagi asked. "Not only do we not need clothes for protection, our bodies are perfect! Clothes only get in the way of showing them off."

"I'm sure about this," Hiruko said. "I don't feel safe without being covered in something. Now, let me try something new…"

Hiruko closed her eyes and reshaped her body, merging her tentacles into two legs and shrinking her breasts to a size closer to that of the average human. She put on the dress without encountering any further problems.

"Wow, how did you figure out how to do that?" Minagi asked.

"I looked at mother whenever she changed her body, and whenever you were off feeding I practiced on my own," Hiruko explained. "Though this is the first time I've made a change this big."

"Can you show me how to do it?" Minagi asked.

"Of course," Hiruko replied.

"While I encourage you to learn this skill, it may not be possible for you to do it to the same extent," Alipheese said to the succubus. "Octopi are better able to change their shape than humans to begin with."

"Maybe, but it would be nice if I could at least get rid of these wings whenever I want," Minagi said. "As much as I like flying, three pairs of wings can be a bother when I'm indoors."

With the issues of clothing and transformation settled, they continued on to the hill. At this elevated vantage point, Minagi gave Hiruko a lesson on how to predict the next day's weather by looking at the sky.

Alipheese watched over her two monsters, satisfied at their progress. She decided that it was time to move on and create a third.


	4. Chapter 4: From the Base

The three of them left the coastal village and moved inland. After passing through plains and open woodland, they arrived at a dense forest. Each of them perceived this biome differently.

Alipheese saw it as a place of abundant biomass and biodiversity, useful for her experiments. It was where she'd sourced many of her ape specimens in the past.

Hiruko found the forest to be both unfamiliar and yet comforting: the former since she had never seen terrestrial plants of such size and concentration, the latter because it offered numerous hiding places like the coral reef she'd originated from.

On the other hand, Minagi had only negative opinions about the forest. She complained that she could no longer feel the sun and wind on her skin. Instead, she was constantly brushing against the vegetation – while her skin was too tough to be punctured by this, that didn't stop it being uncomfortable. She also showed signs of slight fear – presumably a relic of her past as a human from a more open environment, where dense vegetation could be used by predators to ambush prey.

_Perhaps we should leave this forest as soon as possible, to avoid making Minagi displeased,_ Alipheese thought. _Hiruko will eventually get bored of it as well._

Over the next three days, they searched the forest for potential subjects for the next "monsterisation" – this being the name invented by Hiruko for Alipheese's procedure. They examined everything from the largest tree to the smallest of bushes in their search. For sustenance, Hiruko fed on the various forest animals while Minagi fed on the residents of the human villages scattered throughout the forest.

They found all manner of interesting animals with large brains, such as cats and apes, which in theory were suitable subjects. However, Alipheese rejected them all. Minagi's transformation had shown that the process was likely to work on a large mammal. Alipheese wanted a different subject, one that extended the boundaries of her knowledge.

Eventually, Hiruko uncovered what Alipheese was looking for – and quite literally as well. After lifting up a log to examine what was underneath it, she called over the others to see what she had found. It looked superficially like a blue variety of mould, no different from that growing on many of the decaying logs, but it gave off a different odour.

"What is this?" Hiruko asked.

"It's a unique type of organism that I have taken to calling 'slime mould', though it is not strictly related to true mould," Alipheese said. "Minagi did not teach you about this, but it's only natural as any humans who see it would simply dismiss it as normal mould. It differs in several ways, being capable of movement and rudimentary intelligence."

Upon saying this, Alipheese paused. _Of course, why didn't I think of this earlier? This combination of traits makes it ideal as a new kind of experimental subject. And I have studied slime mould before, before I started trying to make intelligent life. For me to have forgotten that… no, that doesn't seem to be the case. Rather, I remember it, but I have so many other memories that it's difficult to recall the less recent ones. Hmm… I should do something about that…_

"Mother, are you okay?" Hiruko asked. "You stopped your explanation in the middle."

"Ah – my apologies," Alipheese said. "As I was saying, they are capable of movement, doing so in order to find food. As for intelligence, they possess a surprising amount of it despite lacking any neurons – what complex organisms use to think with. In some of my previous experiments, I found that they could find the shortest paths to food, avoid hazards and even keep track of time to some extent."

Hiruko examined the slime mould with interest. She grew out a tentacle from her torso, used it to pick up a small piece of the slime mould and licked the piece. From the look on her face, she didn't find it tasty.

"From what you've said, I'm guessing you're going to be trying out your experiment on this?" Minagi said.

"Indeed," Alipheese replied. "Though I will need to increase the size immensely for it to be sapient."

"Okay, I'll leave you to that," Minagi said. "Meanwhile, I'm going off to have some fun – "

"Stop," Alipheese said. "I would prefer that you stay and watch this transformation, so that you may learn from it. You may have your fun later."

Minagi sulked but did as she was instructed.

Alipheese began the experiment. She first transformed the surrounding biomass, which mainly comprised plants and small animals such as insects, into a form that could be fused with the slime mould. To err on the side of caution, she gave the slime mould nearly twice the mass of the average human, since such a simple organism might require more nervous tissue to achieve sapience. Once she was satisfied, she implanted a zygote into the slime mould.

The monsterisation process was notably different from the two previous ones. First and most notable, it was far slower, with almost an entire minute passing before there was any outwardly noticeable change. However, Alipheese could perceive the rapid series of changes beneath the slime mould's surface. Eventually, the slime mould started shifting in shape, producing countless structures such as strands, sacs, layers, tubes, then absorbing them again. This stage lasted for five minutes.

Finally, the former slime mould, and the third monster in existence, rose up from the ground. It was an amorphous blob similar to the original organism, but its substance was now transparent, revealing a complex internal structure. Movement was provided by a network of threads that extended throughout the body, each of which could become rigid or flexible and contract or relax as needed – essentially, each of these threads could act as a "bone" or "muscle". The digestive system comprised numerous vacuoles containing digestive enzymes. The nervous system was especially novel: rather than a distinct brain, there were multiple bundles of neurons distributed throughout the body, connected by nerves. Such a distributed nervous system would normally be slow, but from what Alipheese sensed, the new monster bypassed this by mainly using electrical signals instead of chemical ones.

_Interesting… with this anatomy, it would be extremely resilient to damage. There are no particular weak points that would cause death if damaged, and even if its entire body was torn apart it could reform with no permanent harm. This resilience is not unusual for simple organisms, but for a complex and sapient organism to possess it… _

_On the other hand, it lacks the humanoid form that Hiruko gained with her transformation. Either gaining this form is up to random mutation, or the slime mould was so simple in its anatomy that it could not take on humanoid form._

While Alipheese was pondering this, Minagi picked up a nearby decaying log and approached the new monster, holding the log out cautiously.

"Okay, I know you don't understand my words – and might not even be able to hear them – but we mean you no harm," Minagi said. "Now here's a nice, tasty log for you to feed on, you must be hungry after all that."

The surface of the new monster rippled in response to Minagi's words, suggesting that it was capable of perceiving sound. It oozed forward with surprising speed and engulfed the log – along with Minagi's arm.

"Hey – let go!" Minagi screamed.

The former slime mould did not relent, pulling the succubus into itself. Minagi struggled desperately, even trying unsuccessfully to enthral her attacker, but could not escape. Hiruko tried to come to her rescue, first whipping the new monster with her tentacles and, when that proved ineffective, trying to pull Minagi away.

To gain as much data as possible, Alipheese would have preferred to stay back and continue observing the attempted predation. However, she needed to intervene to preserve the loyalty – and health – of her creations.

Alipheese emitted a pulse of dark energy to slow the new monster's biochemical functions. While it may have been resilient to physical attacks, it could not resist this. The new monster released Minagi – though not the log – and entered a relaxed state.

Minagi had not escaped unscathed. Most of her right arm was covered in acid burns thanks to the new monster's digestive processes. Alipheese thought that this was interesting, as it suggested that her newest creation would be able to digest a wide range of things, but realised that it would be unsociable to say this out loud.

"Be more careful, Minagi," Alipheese said, healing the succubus' burns. "Even as a monster, you are not invulnerable, especially when faced with other monsters."

"Thanks, I'll keep that in mind," Minagi said, averting her gaze. "Still – and I know I've said this before – but is this thing really intelligent?"

"It certainly is, I am sure of that," Alipheese said. "Though it may need a longer period of education than Hiruko did before that becomes apparent – hm?"

The new monster had begun transforming again. Its surface bubbled for several seconds, then it contracted. Its amorphous bulk piled up into a single pillar-like structure, from which arose a distinct head, large breasts, two arms and two legs – though the legs jointed together above where the knees would be, fusing into a mound of slime. Eyes, nose, mouth and ears formed on the head, while two thick tendrils of slime extended down from it in a facsimile of hair. The arms formed hands and then fingers.

The former slime mould looked down at its new body. It examined its fingers and moved them slowly. Then it looked at the other three people and quivered, the movement presumably indicating surprise.

"Hmm… it seems that all of the monsters I create will eventually have humanoid forms," Alipheese said. "Some merely need a little more help."

"Yeah, all she needed to do was try to eat me," Minagi said sarcastically.

Something about the tone of these words caught Alipheese' attention. However, she chose to leave this matter for later.

"We should give her a name," Hiruko said.

"Indeed, and I've already thought of two: a personal name and a name for her new race," Alipheese said. "For her personal name, 'Kanade', and for her race name, 'slime'."

Alipheese had spent several days thinking of the first of these names, considering each sound in the language and fitting them together in various combinations. She actually felt some pride at coming up with something that actually sounded like a name. The second of these names was more simplistic, but then she'd only just decided to try monsterising a slime mould.

"'Slime' is… a bit too descriptive, you should think of something else," Minagi said, "but 'Kanade' sounds good."

"Yeah… I agree with 'Kanade', but 'slime' just makes me think of ordinary slime, not a race of people," Hiruko said.

They therefore settled on naming the new monster 'Kanade'. They fed her various things, including fresh plant and animal matter, until she no longer tried to eat them.

Kanade now looked at her creator and older sisters with what seemed to be curiosity. This meant that it was simple to make her follow them around, and they led her to the nearest human village.

-ooo-

Kanade learned somewhat slower than Hiruko had, taking six weeks to reach the level of an adult human. Though considering her origins, even this could be considered impressive. And, amusingly, after she'd learned the importance of names she had accepted 'slime' as the name for her race, saying that there was no need for a more elaborate name.

A major issue they faced was keeping Kanade fed. The slime had a truly immense appetite; one of the disadvantages of her body was apparently poor energy efficiency. Left to her own devices, she would have eaten all of the village's food reserves within a few days. To feed her, Alipheese needed to use her dark energy to modify the forest plants so they grew with unnatural speed.

Today, they were in a large hut that Alipheese had constructed, as none of the existing huts were big enough to fit the four of them. There was no lighting in the hut except for a glimmer of sunlight from underneath the door. This was because Kanade preferred dark conditions, even though her new body wasn't so easily dehydrated as her old one. They all had excellent night vision so the darkness was no hindrance.

" – and now that you've cut the fabric, you can begin sewing the pieces together," Minagi said.

Kanade began following these instructions. Her liquid body wasn't as unsuited to the task of sewing as it sounded; she could control her body and prevent it from wetting objects she touched. However, she still fumbled the needle several times.

"No, that's not how you do it, maybe you should try using tentacles like me," Hiruko said, waving around her own tentacles. "When I first became a monster I had trouble controlling my fingers as well, but I had an easier time using my tentacles since I had experience with them."

Kanade followed this advice and transformed her hands into bundles of thin tentacles. She manipulated the needle and thread with far more dexterity than before. After a few minutes of practice, she was able to sew the pieces of fabric together faster and more neatly than any human could have managed.

Once she had finished, Kanade set down her handiwork and said, "Done. Though I do not see the purpose of this. While I can technically wear clothes, I do not need them for protection and they would limit the shapes I could assume."

"That might be true, but it's a good way to build up your dexterity and to understand human culture," Minagi said.

"And clothing isn't limited to protecting your body, it can also be used to change your appearance," Hiruko said.

"To do that, I could simply change my own body rather than covering it," Kanade said.

Kanade demonstrated her point by shifting through a series of different shapes and colours. She eventually settled on an appearance that was similar to before, except it now included a deep red patch on her forehead that resembled a large gemstone.

Minagi nodded approvingly. "Good choice, it really matches your eyes."

Hiruko nodded and flashed green, the latter being the colour she used when showing approval.

"Anyway, I think this lesson has gone on long enough," Minagi said. "Does anyone feel like an afternoon snack?"

Kanade responded with her actions instead of words. She moved to the door and, rather than bothering to open it, oozed through the gap underneath. The others followed after her.

The slime immediately went for the village storehouse and began to gorge herself. She didn't bother with chewing or any other mechanical processing – she simply grasped food with her tentacles and took it into her body for digestion.

As Alipheese watched her newest creation, a thought occurred to her mind.

"I believe that she is now mature enough to reproduce," Alipheese said.

"She can? How exactly would that work?" Hiruko asked.

"The reproduction of slime moulds is a complex topic that would take some time to explain," Alipheese said. "Suffice to say that if she had the same method of reproduction, she would have already reproduced after consuming so much food. Most likely, the inclusion of human genes has altered her."

"I see what you're getting at," Minagi said. "Hey, Kanade!"

The succubus called over a few enthralled men and entered the storehouse. Hiruko wandered off to explore the forest again, while Alipheese remained outside the storehouse and thought about her newest creation.

_Even if slime mould is remarkably intelligent, that is only relative to its level of size and complexity, it is still less intelligent than most insects. Yet I succeeded in monsterising it… if this is possible, just how far can this go? Could I even monsterise that which lies at the very boundaries of life, such as viruses?_

_…No, that may not be a good idea, even if it were possible._

_Hmm… I wouldn't have let that stop me before, I would have simply gone ahead and observed the results. I wonder why I have changed…_

Eventually, Kanade and Minagi left the storehouse. Unlike the time with Hiruko, Alipheese sensed that the men were still alive, though the sparks of their lives were weak. More importantly, she sensed significant changes in Kanade's body that suggested she was beginning to reproduce. However, she wasn't producing fruiting bodies that would eventually release spores, the method of reproduction used by slime moulds. The nature of the changes suggested that she was instead going to reproduce by budding – by producing an outgrowth that would split off and become a new individual.

_And budding is normally an asexual method of reproduction… an organism that uses it but is also dependent on mating is unprecedented. On the other hand, it would be able to maintain genetic diversity like other sexually reproducing organisms. In theory, it should also be a faster method of reproduction than – hold that thought, I'd better talk to them._

"How are you feeling, Kanade?" Alipheese asked.

"I feel… full!" Kanade exclaimed. "I didn't eat even half of my normal afternoon snack, but after that, I feel like I could go for at least several hours without anything else!"

"Yeah, that's the spirit!" Minagi said. "Now, you didn't quite finish them off, so why don't we go back inside and – "

"Actually, I will have to disagree with you on that," Kanade said. "I watched you engage in this for weeks, but I said nothing since I did not care before. But now that I have experienced this for myself, I cannot let you continue your wasteful habits."

"What?" Minagi said. "It's not wasteful at all, there's humans everywhere! And draining them all the way is the best thing they'll ever experience in their lives!"

"Humans are not an unlimited resource," Kanade said sternly. "They usually only have one offspring at a time and take over a decade to reach maturity, so their population grows more slowly than most other animals. At this rate of consumption, there is a very real chance that we will drive them extinct. But if we are more restrained in our feeding, the humans can survive and recover, allowing them to be fed on multiple times. In the long run, we will be able to extract more essence this way."

"You may have a point, but that's not right!" Minagi said. "Since we are taking their lives, we owe it to them to – "

Alipheese was caught off guard. This was the first time that any of her creations had argued seriously with each other. She turned towards Hiruko, but the scylla wouldn't be any help as she'd retreated behind a tree in fear.

_To think that the monster derived from a slime mould would have greater forethought than the one derived from a human… It may be due to her simpler base not having any room for the irrationality of more complex organisms. But I must focus on the present. It is up to me to resolve this problem. I can only hope that I do this correctly…_

"There is no need to fight," Alipheese said, raising her hands in a conciliatory manner. "The two of you can come to a compromise. Kanade, you are correct in saying that consuming humans too quickly is unsustainable, but that does not mean that all humans need to be treated in the manner you suggest, just enough to continue the species. Minagi, you have your own preferences on how to treat humans and there is nothing wrong with that, but you should not push your preferences onto others. I propose this solution: Minagi may continue consuming humans as she has previously been doing, but the other two are not obligated to do the same. Agreed?"

"Fine," Minagi said.

"I have no objections with that," Kanade said.

"I'm… fine with that as well," Hiruko said, more quietly than the other two.

With the issue of eating habits settled, Hiruko emerged from behind the tree and led Kanade around to show her more of the sights of the forest.

Now that they were alone, Alipheese turned to Minagi and said, "Forgive me if this is intrusive, but you seem to have been concerned about something ever since Kanade's monsterisation. What is it?"

"It's nothing," Minagi said. She looked at her creator's expression and sighed. "Fine, it's because I couldn't do anything when Kanade was trying to eat me. My power is only useful against humans, against other monsters it's useless."

"Not necessarily, it could have been due to Kanade's peculiar structure, especially since she hadn't taken a humanoid form at the time," Alipheese said. "Ultimately, each of you is specialised for a different purpose, just as birds have been shaped by evolution for flying, fish for swimming, humans for intelligence. It is nothing to be ashamed of. Neither of your sisters can do what you can."

"Maybe, but… I still don't want to be that vulnerable again," Minagi said. She tilted her head in thought. "Hmm… back in my tribe, only men were taught how to fight. But I still watched them when they were training, and I remember some of it…"

Minagi took a deep breath, stood with her legs spaced apart, clenched her fist and thrust it forward. She repeated the action dozens of times, each time correcting her stance slightly. Eventually, she twisted the rest of her body as she performed the punch, increasing its speed and power significantly.

"Not good enough," Minagi said. "It doesn't help that this body _really_ isn't suited for this kind of physical activity."

"Perhaps you should learn to first alter the shape of your body, as Hiruko and Kanade can, before you practice such skills," Alipheese suggested.

"I'll do that, thanks for the advice," Minagi said.

Alipheese left Minagi to continue her practice and moved to a hill overlooking the village. She coiled her tail into a pile and sat down on top of it.

_Soon after I altered her, I remember thinking that I should modify her further to improve her durability. But I did not suggest that now, even though it was the most expedient option… I truly have changed._

_Aside from that, I now have three monsters who are all beginning to produce the next generation. It is time to move on._


	5. Chapter 5: From Autotrophy

_AN: This was a difficult chapter to write. The focal character is canonically a sadistic vore monster, and I spent some time trying to figure out how to represent this well. I'm still not 100% sure about it._

* * *

Alipheese placed her hand on Minagi's abdomen, which now had a prominent bulge, and began her examination.

"Both of the foetuses are developing well, using human gestation as a baseline, though I would need to study more cases of human gestation to be sure. They resemble human foetuses except that they also possess rudimentary wings and tail—though only one pair of the former, instead of their mother's three."

"That's good to hear," Minagi said.

"What will the babies will look like once they're born?" Hiruko asked. "How will they behave?"

"At this stage it is still too early to discern that," Alipheese replied. "As a novel organism, the reproduction of a succubus is something I cannot predict. And that principle applies to an even greater extent to you two, since you are fusions of human and non-human."

"Though in my case, it is fairly likely that my offspring will resemble myself," Kanade said.

In the past few weeks, the slime had gained a considerable amount of weight, though her overall shape was unchanged. The changes within her body confirmed what Alipheese had suspected previously: Kanade was going to reproduce by budding. It was still an unexpectedly primitive method of reproduction for a complex organism.

_Though plants can reproduce in a similar fashion… Hmm…_

With this thought in mind, Alipheese led her three monsters to their next destination. After just under two hours, they arrived at a bog: a large expanse of green and brown, covered in mosses, shrubs and the occasional stunted tree. This environment would be hazardous for humans, with countless water bodies that were nearly impossible to discern from the surrounding soil, and swarms of biting insects that could spread disease.

Fortunately, Alipheese and her group were far greater than humans. Alipheese herself changed her tail into a more flattened shape to distribute her weight and allow her to slither over the waterlogged soil. Minagi simply spread her wings and flew above the bog. Hiruko, whose dress had recently been modified to accommodate her true form, used her tentacles to crawl around. Kanade didn't even need to do anything differently than usual; her amorphous body oozed over soil and water alike without sinking.

Alipheese told her monsters to search the bog for her next experimental subject. It was then that she discovered another unexpected aspect of one of her creations.

Kanade's body bulged greatly in two places. The connections between the bulges and the main part of her body contracted, resulting in two masses of slime splitting off. These masses landed on the ground and formed two identical copies of Kanade.

"You've reproduced already?" Alipheese said. She then examined the copies and realised that they had significant internal differences from the original. "No, wait… this is something else."

"This is a technique I devised so that I could be in multiple places at once," Kanade explained. "I can divide my substance into multiple distinct bodies, all of which share my mind."

"That's really useful… I wonder if I could do something similar?" Minagi said. "It would make sex a lot more interesting…"

"I will need to study this further," Alipheese said. "For now, you should return to your duty so I may observe how this technique functions."

Kanade and the other monsters began searching the bog. Alipheese sprouted additional eyes so she could observe all three of the slime's bodies simultaneously. One body lifted up a log to see what was underneath, another searched through bushes, and a third examined a pool of water.

_Intriguing… there is no physical connection between them, yet they all move independently _and_ for a common purpose. They are slightly slower and less dextrous than when she had only one body, but it's still far greater performance than expected. When I tried such a feat before, I could only make my copies stand up and move by implanting instructions in them at their time of creation. And they still could not act independently._

_How are Kanade's copies communicating? They are not using visual methods such as changing colour, nor auditory methods, nor even olfactory methods such as pheromones. And none of those methods can transmit the quantity of information needed for such feats._

Alipheese closed her eyes and focused on her magical senses. She discovered that Kanade's three bodies were communicating using a wavelength of magic that she had never seen before. It was akin to seeing an eighth colour in the rainbow.

_I must learn how to do the same… it would be useful for communicating with my creations over long distances, should that situation arise._

As Alipheese watched, Kanade—the original body—came across something that drew her attention. She stood up and gestured for the others to come over.

The slime had discovered a small plant with unusually shaped leaves. These leaves were folded at the midrib so that the two halves faced each other, and the margins were lined with long hairs—indeed, these leaves looked like tiny mouths. One of these mouths was currently closed and a strange odour was emanating from it. The odour wasn't strange in the sense that Alipheese had never encountered it before, but it would certainly be strange to the others. Few plants gave off the odour of half-digested insects, after all.

"What is this?" Kanade asked. "It seems to be a plant feeding on an animal—but from what I was taught, that should be impossible."

"It is not impossible, though plants such as these are rare," Alipheese replied.

"Wait, so there are really plants that eat animals?" Hiruko said.

"Indeed, though not entirely for the same reason as carnivorous animals," Alipheese said. "Carnivorous animals feed to gain both energy and the nutrients they need to grow and maintain their bodies. Carnivorous plants feed only to obtain nutrients, they still obtain energy from the sun like other plants. And the reason why humans are unaware of them—and hence why Minagi did not teach you two about them—is that carnivorous plants grow in infertile soils which do not contain these nutrients, forcing these plants to take them from animals. In more fertile soils, there is no need for this and so plants do not waste energy on carnivory."

Hiruko bent down and looked closely at the carnivorous plant. She poked a leaf with a finger. The plant didn't respond at first. Then she poked it a second time and the leaf snapped shut on her finger.

"Hey, why didn't it react immediately?" Hiruko asked, while prying the leaf off her finger.

"That is an adaptation of the plant to avoid wasting its effort," Alipheese said. "It will only close its trap if it detects two instances of movement in a short period of time, and it waits for another five instances before it begins the digestive process. Without this selectivity, the plant would try to eat anything that enters its trap, even things it cannot digest such as the fallen leaves of other plants."

"I never knew that there were plants that could _count_," Minagi said. "Are you planning on making this your next subject?"

"Indeed," Alipheese said. "It should serve as a good test of the limits of monsterisation."

Alipheese gathered a large number of plants with a combined mass nearly twice that of the average human—as in Kanade's transformation, she used more mass than strictly needed due to the low intelligence of the initial organism. She included other carnivorous plants in the mix: four more individuals of the species with mouth-like leaves, and five of another species that caught its prey with cup-shaped leaves filled with digestive fluid. Remembering how previous monsterisations had gone, she gathered a number of large, juicy insects as an offering. She fused the plants together to create a large bush with bizarre foliage. Finally, she injected a zygote into this bush.

The bush writhed around forcefully, so forcefully that Alipheese wondered if it was going to uproot itself. A bud formed at the top of the bush and grew rapidly. Three minutes passed, then the surface of the bud split along five lines from top to bottom. The surface slowly peeled away to reveal its contents.

_A flower, and one larger than any natural flower…_ Alipheese realised. _Flowers are plant reproductive organs, it is unusual for a single flower to make up the majority of the aboveground mass._

The flower finished blooming. Nestled among pink petals was a humanoid figure with pale green skin and dark green hair. Two small flowers grew from the sides of her head, while a third much larger flower grew from the back of her head. Her torso and limbs were wrapped in thin vines.

The plant monster looked around unsteadily with her blue eyes. When she noticed that she wasn't alone, she quickly closed her flower again.

_This is the third time that a monster gained humanoid form… it does not seem to be coincidence,_ Alipheese thought. _More importantly, we must now gain her trust._

Alipheese and her first three creations moved to a short distance away from the plant monster. The dark elemental extended a tentacle and gently deposited the insects on the plant monster's modified leaves.

While they waited for the plant monster to consume the offering, Minagi said to Alipheese, "There is one thing that you seem to have missed: she's still a plant, and still rooted in the ground. She can't travel around with us… unless you plan on digging out the soil she's rooted in and carrying that around."

"That should not be an issue," Alipheese replied. "As the examples of your two sisters show, the human genes are expressed strongly in monsters, giving them the strengths of humans without their weaknesses. Hiruko was an aquatic organism, yet she can now move on land. Kanade could only move very slowly before, and couldn't enter the light without dehydrating, yet now she moves freely."

After a brief pause, Minagi nodded. "Moving on, what should we name her? I can't think of any good names."

"Can I try naming her?" Hiruko said, her tentacles waving excitedly.

"Sure!" Minagi said.

"Go ahead… I do not care for such trivialities," Kanade said.

"What do you have in mind?" Alipheese asked.

"Alright, so I've been talking to the humans in the last few villages and hearing about their culture," Hiruko explained. "As part of that, I learned some of the different dialects they use. From that I thought of this name: 'Kanon'. It means 'song of flowers', which I think fits her. And as for her race name, what about 'alraune'? It comes from a story about a type of flower that pops up after a human dies, supposedly because that human's soul becomes a seed."

"'Kanon'… it sounds similar to Kanade's name," Minagi said, "but it's different enough that they won't be mixed up. It and 'alraune' both sound good."

A flicker of movement attracted Alipheese' attention. She looked back at the plant monster to see that it had finished consuming the insects—taking much less time than the original plant would have—and there was a crack between the sepals in which a blue eye could be seen.

"It seems that she has begun to accept us," Alipheese said. "Let us set up camp here, to give her time to adjust to her new form."

Alipheese quickly constructed a small hut. There wasn't enough wood in reach to make a larger one, so she'd simply have to stay out of the hut while her creations were using it. During the construction, Minagi wandered off and returned with a group of humans she'd enthralled—she explained that they were travellers passing through the bog. She and Kanade immediately began their meal for the day.

-ooo-

Over the next five weeks, the first alraune Kanon learned how to speak, cooperate with others, make tools, use tools and otherwise be a fine monster. She also learned two methods of moving around: by leaving her flower and walking around on her humanoid legs, though she disliked this as she felt vulnerable outside her flower; and pulling up her flower's roots so she could crawl around on them, which was slower but also more comfortable for her.

Kanon was notably unlike her sisters in one interesting aspect. While her sisters were all focused on the present—Minagi on satisfying her lust and bringing pleasure to humans, Hiruko on discovering new things, Kanade on feeding—the alraune was focused more on the past.

"So you don't know anything else from over a hundred years ago?" Kanon asked, waving her tendrils around impatiently.

"I don't, okay?" Minagi replied. "Human shamans would know, since they pass down their knowledge to their successors, but I didn't get to hear that information back when I was human. Anyway, why does it matter to you so much?"

"It matters because the world is vast and complicated, too much for any one person to learn in their lifetime—and even for immortals like us, it would be a difficult task," Kanon said. "So it's important to remember everything that is already learned, rather than letting it be forgotten and forcing it to be learned again. And while the humans pass on information by telling it to one another, that's far from perfect since they don't remember everything they hear. Even if we monsters are superior to humans, our memories are still imperfect. Tell me, what were you doing on the morning of two weeks ago?"

"Well… umm… I was having sex at the time—"

"With how many humans, and what did they look like?"

"I think it was two… but I don't remember what they looked like," Minagi admitted.

"See? That proves my point," Kanon said.

"It is indeed a good point," Alipheese said. "I face a similar problem. I've lived for millions of years, improving the capabilities of my brain countless times to accommodate everything I've learned, yet recalling any but the most recent events is difficult. What would you suggest to rectify this?"

"Well, one of the things Minagi taught me was about how humans draw pictures to represent things," Kanon said. "I think it might be possible to modify this, by making the pictures smaller, to store information in a way that's much more reliable than memory.

Kanon demonstrated her point by using her tendrils to scratch crude outlines in the dirt.

"See, this is a simple picture of a fire, with the blocks at the bottom being wood and the curved shape at the top being the actual fire. And over here is a fish, you can see the long streamlined body and the fins. And then there's the three suns over here, which represent three days. All together, it means: 'Three days ago, we fried fish over a fire for dinner.' I know it's simplistic—I only came up with it just now—but what do you think?"

"Hmm… I know what it means, but that's because I actually remember the thing you're trying to portray," Hiruko said. "If you showed this to a stranger, they probably wouldn't understand it. I think you need to add more details."

"Aside from that, pictures in wet soil will not last very long," Kanade said. "I understand that you were merely performing a demonstration, but for proper records of the past you should use something more resilient. Perhaps you could carve them into stone? It would be far more laborious to create or modify such records, but they would be fairly resilient to the elements."

"Thanks for the advice," Kanon said. "I also think that I could make the pictures smaller, more compact… though I don't know how I'd do that without making them incomprehensible."

"Why don't you take some time off to think about that?" Minagi suggested. "In the meantime, why don't I show you something amazing? You can make it the first thing that you record in these pictures of yours…"

Minagi called over a group of enthralled men. Alipheese, Hiruko and Kanade left the hut. The latter two wandered off to satisfy their own wants, leaving Alipheese to ponder the recent conversation.

_Kanon's method of storing information is promising… and it's something that never occurred to me, even after all my years of life. If I hadn't succeeded in making monsters, I might never have thought of this… having multiple viewpoints is truly a valuable thing._

_Moving on, what should I try monsterising next? Or rather, is there a point to continuing this venture? The examples of Kanade and Kanon show that this process works even on organisms with the most basic of intelligence. I cannot learn much more by continuing, and I already have three monsters who will soon create the next generation. It might be better to do as some of the humans do, to settle down and create a permanent dwelling…_

Alipheese briefly planned out how to construct such a dwelling. However, no matter how much she thought about this subject, she couldn't shake the feeling that there was something _incomplete_ about her experiment.

_Hmm… if multiple viewpoints is valuable, wouldn't it be better to have more still?_

_Yes… I've barely scratched the surface when it comes to the diversity of life. I should make more monsters, representing as many taxa as possible…_

Suddenly, Alipheese heard a disturbance from within the hut. She returned to find that Kanon had expanded one of her carnivorous leaves to dozens of times its original size and this leaf was filled with a large, struggling object. Minagi was trying futilely to force open said leaf.

-ooo-

Five minutes later, the affair was over. The human ultimately wasn't saved. Minagi yelled at Kanon for what she'd done, but the alraune didn't seem repentant in the slightest. In fact, she seemed proud of her action. Eventually, the succubus stormed out of the hut.

_In hindsight, I should have expected this to happen,_ Alipheese thought. _She was based on a plant that already reversed the usual relationship of predator and prey. Now that she has been elevated via the process of monsterisation, it is plausible that her dietary preferences would also be elevated. Still, I must settle this dispute._

"I will talk to her," Alipheese said. "However, you should be careful as well. At the very least, you should avoid consuming too many humans, lest you incur Kanade's wrath as well."

"Okay… but to be honest, I can't stop myself from doing this, it just feels too good," Kanon said, letting out a contented sigh. "And there's one more thing. I now know some of the things that that human did: how to turn ore into bronze, how to forge that bronze into a knife, how to keep that knife sharp… I don't have all of his knowledge, but it is more than I knew before."

Kanon began drawing countless outlines in the earth, so quickly that her tendrils were a green blur.

"So much information—I can't get it all down in time," Kanon said, engrossed in her task. "I need to think—need to come up with a better way of recording this…"

_Gaining information simply by consuming an organism… it's something even I have never accomplished,_ Alipheese thought._ Another thing I might never have discovered on my own._

This thought led Alipheese to recall some of her earliest observations of humans. She'd seen how they grew miserable and weak when solitary for too long, like other social animals. At the time, she'd thought this to be a sign of weakness… but now that she had equals to talk with, to show her the value of social interaction, she realised just how foolish she'd been.

_I will not make that mistake again._

Alipheese then analysed Kanon's condition. Internally, she was going through a series of changes that, in plants, led to the formation of seeds. It seemed that she'd had intercourse in the conventional manner first, then proceeded to literal consumption just before Alipheese had entered.

_This is the fourth case… it seems that all monsters require human males in order to reproduce. That complicates things._

_If I intend on building a society for monsters, I will need to ensure that there is a self-sustaining human population as well. Humans can only live in a limited range of environments, so monsters will be limited in where they can live as well. And that is only the first of many issues. I also need to consider how to raise monsters of different races, who are likely to have different needs…_

_But I will not let that stop me. I will do everything in my power for my monsters… for my daughters._


	6. Chapter 6: From Extinction

_AN: I only just realised that, except in Minagi's case, Alipheese has been detecting her daughters' pregnancies unrealistically fast. It would be too much work to change that now and it's a minor thing anyway, so I'll leave the previous chapters as is._

* * *

After two more weeks, Kanon was confident enough to travel long distances, allowing Alipheese to lead her group on the next leg of their journey.

They passed through open plains and dense forests, scorching deserts and snow-capped mountains. Alipheese's daughters all found the journey to be an enjoyable experience, albeit for different reasons. But the dark elemental herself was dissatisfied; although she encountered countless forms of life, she could not find one suitable to become her next daughter. Whether it was a hulking beast or a small plant, all seemed to be lacking something.

In between these searches, Alipheese studied the method that Kanade used to control multiple bodies at once, which she had dubbed "telepathy". The theory was simple—sending waves of invisible magical energy between her bodies—but the amount of information transmitted in this way was immense. It was as though Kanade's bodies were all physically connected through nerves. Moreover, the telepathic waves could travel immense distances with barely any loss of information. After a few weeks of study, Alipheese learned how to perform this feat herself, and it took only a few more days for her remaining daughters to figure it out as well. This greatly expanded their freedom of movement, as they could now separate for long periods of time and still remain in contact. Minagi exploited this newfound freedom the most, often lingering in human villages for days on end, then catching up to the others once she was satisfied.

Minagi had made significant progress in her personal pursuit of unarmed combat training. She was now capable of felling large trees in single blows from her arms and legs. While she would always be physically the weakest of Alipheese's daughters, she was no longer guaranteed to lose in a fight against the others.

Kanon also improved her method of recording information as pictures. By making the pictures smaller and simpler, she could record information much more compactly, though with the drawback of the pictures becoming harder for others to understand. She called these special pictures "letters". Additionally, rather than scratching these letters into the ground, she had begun carving them into thin sheets of wood produced from her own body.

During the journey, Minagi and Kanon were able to reconcile despite their different preferences in consuming humans. As it turned out, the humans Kanon consumed experienced immense pleasure in the process. Minagi was able to confirm this using her own sense for the pleasure of others and was satisfied.

Eventually, they stopped and set up camp on a west-facing coast. They had brought along eight men to serve as provisions. Recently, Kanade had managed to impress upon the others the importance of conserving humans, showing them how to prolong their lives for as long as possible. Now, even Minagi could keep her prey alive for over a week. Even so, they would need to replace them eventually. Fortunately, there was a human village not too far away.

Alipheese checked the conditions of her daughters and eventual granddaughters. Minagi was now approaching the point of birth, though her monster physiology meant that she wasn't physically hindered. Hiruko and Kanon were both heavily pregnant as well, with considerable bulges in their abdomens. Kanade was externally the same, aside from her increased mass, but the internal changes showed that she was preparing to bud. In all cases, their offspring were developing well.

_It is interesting that Kanon is already showing visible signs… a relic of her basis?_ Alipheese wondered. _Though it is strange that she has outpaced Kanade, who was transformed from a slime mould. Perhaps it is simply due to random mutation. Regardless, I should be glad that they have so far faced no major health issues despite being novel organisms._

After setting aside these thoughts, Alipheese looked around to find that most of her daughters had already wandered off, with only Kanon still nearby.

_A desire for freedom seems to be common to monsters… that will also complicate any attempt I make to build a society for them. It might be best to have no permanent settlements at all, to simply let them wander as they please… Anyway, I should address Kanon's concerns._

"You look as if you have a question for me, what is it?" Alipheese asked.

"It's not important, really… I just want to ask you again about what you remember of the distant past," Kanon said. "Yesterday, you mentioned that the dominant animals of this world weren't always mammals, but you didn't finish that story."

"Indeed, and it's a shame that your sisters have already left, this is a tale that they might like to hear in person," Alipheese said. "They will simply have to settle for hearing it remotely."

Alipheese sent out a telepathic wave to contact her other three daughters. Minagi was currently feeding and requested not to be interrupted. Hiruko and Kanade were exploring the sea, but they agreed to listen.

"Over two hundred million years ago, a certain group of reptiles appeared," Alipheese said, both out loud and via telepathy. "They were initially small and feeble, but chance events caused their competitors and predators to become extinct. This allowed this group of reptiles to diversify. They expanded into every niche and larger species appeared, some of which were the largest animals ever to walk the land. Observe that tree over there." Alipheese pointed to a tall tree in the distance. "Today, the tallest of mammals would merely be able to reach its lower foliage. But the largest of those great reptiles would have towered over it."

"But why are those reptiles no longer around?" Kanon asked, while recording the story on a wooden sheet. "Why are the reptiles of the present era so small in comparison?"

"Ultimately, they too were driven extinct by a chance event—a meteor," Alipheese revealed. "The meteors you were taught about are harmless, as they are so small that they burn up in the atmosphere, but a few are large enough to strike the ground. Over sixty million years ago, a truly immense meteor fell—by my estimate, it was larger than any mountain. Its impact was so powerful that it caused worldwide earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and waves. These disasters not only killed most life on their own, they also filled the atmosphere with dust—blocking light and causing plants to wither away—and sulfuric gases—leading to acid rain."

Alipheese paused for a few seconds, allowing her listeners to absorb this information.

"The effects of the meteor lasted for many years. By the end, almost all of the great reptiles had died off, whether killed by the immediate disasters, choked by the dust or starved by the lack of food. Their cousins, the crocodilians, survived due to their low food requirements. But of the great reptiles themselves, only a few of the smaller species survived. These species diversified and many gained the power of flight… and are now known as birds."

"Wait—you're saying that birds are descended from those reptiles?" Kanon said.

"Indeed, it is the reason for their scaled legs, along with many other features," Alipheese said. "From a technical perspective, they are in fact reptiles themselves. Though from that perspective, one could argue that all vertebrates are fish. Due to their many differences, it is also safe to regard birds as their own separate group. Modern reptiles are descended from a different group, which is why they lack feathers."

_Hmm… it's a shame that they're the only ones left,_ Hiruko said telepathically. _Birds are interesting in their own way, but I wish I could have seen those big reptiles myself._

These words gave Alipheese an idea. She'd been indifferent to the near-total extinction of the great reptiles, as it was simply one of many mass extinctions she'd seen on this planet. But now that one of her daughters wanted to see these animals again…

_With my capabilities, it should be possible to recreate them,_ Alipheese thought. _I still have a little of those reptiles' genes within my body. By itself, that is insufficient to recreate them, but if I use material from their descendants…_

Alipheese soon decided on her plan. She told her daughters to go out and find birds and reptiles to act as her material. Hiruko immediately obeyed, Kanade obeyed but added that she would like to eat all of the animals that weren't used in the monsterisation, Kanon finished recording the story and then obeyed, and Minagi complained about being interrupted but nevertheless obeyed.

Over the next few minutes, the four monsters gathered a large variety of birds and reptiles. Hiruko repeatedly dived into the sea and returned with her tentacles laden with marine reptiles. Kanade divided herself into five bodies and searched both land and sea. Minagi took to the air and captured many birds. Kanon bored her roots through the ground to find small lizards and the eggs of sea turtles.

Alipheese was eventually surrounded by enough animals to feed a human village for a week. She spent several more minutes sorting through them. She eventually settled on a purple-feathered seabird and a purple-scaled sea snake to act as the base. She merged these and several other animals, adding in the genes left within her own body, creating something resembling one of the great reptiles: bipedal, with forelimbs tipped with claws and lined with large wing feathers; a long snout and a mouth filled with sharp teeth; a tail longer than the rest of the body. She left the remaining animals for Kanade to consume, though she kept a few of the smaller birds as an offering.

Once all the preparations were complete, Alipheese implanted a zygote into the bird-reptile fusion. It writhed about in a frenzy and, with the creaking of muscle and bone, it rapidly changed in shape. The hindlimbs were absorbed back into the body, the tail grew immensely, and the forelimb feathers expanded to form fully fledged wings. Despite these divergences, the head and torso became humanoid in shape like in the previous four cases. The humanoid portions had golden eyes, light brown skin and dark brown hair. After a few more seconds, the ends of the hair changed further, forming multiple purple-scaled snakes.

The new monster curled her tail to bring herself into an upright position. When she spotted her mother and older sisters, she hissed and spread her wings threateningly. However, she did not retreat—this, at least, was a good sign.

Alipheese cautiously offered the birds to the new monster to placate her, then she and the others moved back. Saja bit and chewed the food like a human, rather than biting and then swallowing or immediately swallowing it like birds or snakes.

"So… is there any reason why she looks like that, all… mixed-up?" Minagi asked. "Because I'm guessing that those extinct reptiles looked like what you tried to make before. Why does she look like someone took a human, a bird and a bunch of snakes and just fused them together?"

"I can only guess that it is due to random mutation," Alipheese replied. "It is certainly unexpected that she has wings instead of humanoid arms. You four all have arms with hands and fingers, presumably because manual dexterity is a useful complement to intelligence."

"Even if she doesn't actually look like one of those ancient reptiles, I'm still okay with this," Hiruko asked. "Anyway, what should we name her?"

"I'd like to try doing that," Kanon said. "I learned a lot of possible names from the humans I've eaten. One of them that would suit her is 'Saja'. It's the name that people in Safina—in that desert we passed through earlier—use to describe a kind of legendary sand snake. Though I'm not sure about a name for her race…"

"That can be left for later—for now, a personal name will allow us to refer to her," Alipheese said.

At this moment, Saja finished eating the offering. She watched her new family cautiously.

-ooo-

It took just under three weeks for Saja to reach the intelligence of an adult human. The short timespan was likely due to her relatively high initial intelligence and the multiple monsters teaching her. The issue of manipulating objects was also solved when she learned to use her hair-snakes to grasp objects in their mouths. However, even with this additional time to think, none of them could come up with a name for Saja's race. Her combination of human, avian and reptilian features defied any attempt to summarise it in a single word. Fortunately, Saja herself did not mind this.

During this period, Hiruko came up with a new method of entertainment, one that did not use up any humans. Inspired by Kanon's method of recording information, she created "cards" that were small sheets of thin wood with pictures drawn on them using pigment. At first she only used her own black ink, but with Kanon's and Kanade's help she was able to include other colours. These cards were used in the following game: two or more people each drew five cards from a pile; they took turns to lay down one of these cards on the ground and then draw another card from the pile; certain cards interacted with each other in a logical way that caused one or more cards to be removed; the game ended when all cards were drawn from the pile and the person who had the most cards remaining was the winner. At least, these were the initial rules; Hiruko updated them every few days in response to comments from the others.

Currently, they were playing one such game. Alipheese was participating instead of simply staying back to observe.

"I play an elephant card, consuming Minagi's tree card," Alipheese said, laying down the card in question.

Minagi swore and moved her tree card to a waste pile.

"And I play a meat card, feeding your tiger card and taming it so that it joins my side," Saja said, laying down a card using a hair-snake.

"Wait, that _has_ to be against the rules!" Minagi protested.

"Weren't you the one who argued, three games ago, that you could take Kanade's man card by using your succubus card to seduce it?" Saja said. "Hiruko, what do you think?"

"The rules are clear: if you can make a logical argument for it, then you get your way," Hiruko said.

Minagi sighed and roughly moved her tiger card over to Saja's side. This left no cards on her side, so it was no surprise that when the game ended, she was in last place.

"Well, I've had enough for today, so I'll be pulling out of this," Saja said.

"I'll be pulling out as well," Minagi said. "Now, we've just ran out of men, so why don't you and I go over to the nearest village and pick up some more? While we're there, I can show you what sex as a monster feels like. It's something you'll _definitely_ remember…"

Saja agreed, so she and the succubus went outside. Normally, Alipheese would have left them to their own devices. However, due to the previous arguments between her daughters in precisely this kind of situation, she instead decided to pull out of the game and follow them discreetly.

Minagi and Saja both flew through the sky, with Alipheese following them on the ground. They arrived at a small fishing village, one that comprised no more than forty or so buildings. Minagi sent out a wave of mind magic that enthralled the entire population. Unlike when she'd first become a succubus, her magic was powerful enough to affect even the youngest humans. As these were useless as mates or breeding stock, they would be left alone until they had matured.

Then Minagi and Saja landed and were hidden from Alipheese's view by the humans. Her other senses, however, worked perfectly well.

"Come to think of it, just what exactly do you think of our mother?" Minagi asked.

"Hmm? Oh, I'm grateful to her for lifting me up to sapience," Saja replied. "If it wasn't for her, I would be dead of predation, starvation or some other cause within a few years. Why do you ask?"

"Just curious, that's all," Minagi said casually. "Anyway, since this is your first time, I'll give you the first pick of who to taste."

A few minutes passed, during which Saja moved around the village to examine the humans. Alipheese followed her around to avoid missing anything. Eventually, Saja stopped in front of a young man with a slim build and red hair. The man seemed perfectly ordinary to Alipheese, but it seemed that Saja saw something unique about him. She leaned down and licked his cheek experimentally, then coiled her tail around his legs and embraced him with her wings.

Twenty minutes passed. By the end, the man was exhausted but in no danger of death—it probably helped that Minagi had been giving her younger sister advice throughout the process. However, Saja didn't let go of the man.

"This taste… it's remarkable, but more than that, there's this warmth…" Saja murmured. "It's comforting beyond words, it's something I never want to relinquish."

"If he tastes that good, can I try him out once he recovers?" Minagi asked.

"No." Saja said firmly. "He is mine. There are plenty of men around, content yourself with them."

"Come on, just a quick taste wouldn't hurt," Minagi insisted, stepping close to the man.

The next event was so fast that even Alipheese's eyes could barely see it. Saja flapped one wing, creating a gust of wind that hurled Minagi backwards and through a hut.

Minagi emerged from the wreckage and assumed a combative stance. "Hey, what's the big idea!? I was just asking, even if you wanted to refuse, you didn't have to attack me!"

"Now that I've found someone who makes me feel this way, I won't let him go," Saja said, her hair-snakes writhing menacingly. "I won't let you, any of my other sisters, my mother or anyone else touch him!"

"What—you think you've fallen in love with him?" Minagi said. "You've known him for less than an hour! You haven't even heard him say anything other than 'Yes' and 'More'!"

"You don't know anything about what love means!" Saja retorted. "You go through multiple men a day, never even thinking about them once you're done with them. To you, they are nothing more than food and toys. But I'm different from you!"

Minagi flinched from these words. "Yeah, well—it hasn't even been a month since you gained intelligence, so do you really think you know about—"

Before the argument could escalate further, Alipheese revealed herself. Both of her daughters were surprised, with Minagi also showing fear.

_Though that's hardly surprising—even if she's more skilled than before, her body is still fragile enough that a single blow from Saja's tail could break her bones,_ Alipheese thought. Out loud, she said, "Stop this. It is not worth fighting each other over."

"Mother, I – I'm sorry for what I said about you!" Saja said, quickly releasing the man and bowing.

"It is of no consequence to me," Alipheese replied. "I have no interest in humans, beyond reproduction."

"Well, if you were watching us all this – all this time, then you should know that I'm in the right here!" Minagi said. "I was just asking her to share, she's the one who attacked me first!"

"Both of you are in the wrong in this situation," Alipheese declared. "Saja, you should not have attacked your sister. No matter how much you value this man, Minagi was not a serious threat to him, or to you—your reaction was disproportionate. And Minagi, when Saja denied your request, you should have accepted it. Even if you wished to argue further, you should have maintained your distance instead of approaching the man."

The two monsters lowered their heads in shame.

"If you truly regret your actions, you should apologise not to me, but to each other."

Saja turned to her sister and said, "I'm sorry. I should not have attacked you over something so minor."

"And I'm sorry as well, for being too pushy during what should have been one of the best days of your life," Minagi replied.

Alipheese nodded and healed Minagi's injuries. "Good. Now then, we should complete the original task and bring over several men. Kanade should be feeling hungry by now. Though, Saja, what do you wish to do with this man you've fallen in love with?"

"I'll bring him with me—I will not compromise on that," Saja said resolutely.

"If that's what you want to do, fine, but how long do you plan on keeping him around?" Minagi asked.

"Until the end of his natural lifespan," Saja replied. "Something that I will avoid hastening… _unlike_ certain individuals…"

"Saja," Alipheese said in a warning tone. "Do not attempt to start another argument. And if that is your intention, what will you do after that? You are an immortal monster and humans are mortal. Even with all of my power, I cannot do anything more than prolong their lifespan. While I can transform human women into monsters to grant them immortality, the procedure has never worked on men."

"I'm aware of that issue," Saja said. "As for what I will do afterwards… I must admit that I don't know. I will think of it when the time comes."

Alipheese was satisfied with this answer. She and her daughters returned to the camp bringing a total of six men. Minagi and Kanade immediately pounced on the men, while Saja carried her chosen man off to a secluded cove for their own private activities. Hiruko and Kanon continued playing the card game, and Alipheese chose to participate in this again.

While she was examining her handful of cards, Alipheese thought about the cause of the most recent argument. _For Saja to show such a strong desire for one specific man… it is almost certainly due to her avian basis, as pair bonding is prevalent among birds. Though Minagi quickly abandoned this, even though humans also form pair bonds… it may be due to her unique mutation giving her too much lust for one partner to satisfy._

_Regardless, I now have five daughters. By human standards, that is a reasonable number, and unlike humans, my offspring will not die and will continue to have offspring of their own. It would be sensible to stop now and focus on caring for my existing daughters._

_But… no matter how much I think about it, five seems to be an insufficient number. There is no logical reason for this… it is purely a matter of emotion._

As she lay down her first card, Alipheese tried to hide her smile.

_Me, being ruled by emotion… just a year ago, I would have considered it a ludicrous prospect. But that is the reality now._


	7. Chapter 7: Securing the Future

_AN: Sorry for the delay, it took a while to write this chapter._

_I realised that there's one major aspect of the setting I left out—human worship of Ilias. Promestein's backstory shows that this was present even before she gave fire to humans, and the humans I've depicted are definitely past this point, but I haven't mentioned Ilias at all. It's a bit late to correct this, but better late than never._

* * *

Alipheese and her family left the coast after staying there for just over a month. Personally, she would have preferred to stay there until her first few daughters gave birth, but they insisted that they could handle the stress of travel. They took another batch of men from the coastal village as provisions and left the remainder behind so that the population would eventually replenish; a practice not too different from the humans' own practice of throwing back some of the fish they caught.

After ten days, they came across a human settlement bigger than any they'd seen before—it could no longer be called a village, but rather a town. Even a cursory glance revealed hundreds of buildings and thousands of people. And the buildings weren't ramshackle piles of wood that could be destroyed by a severe storm, but sturdy constructions of stone blocks and rammed earth. The tallest of these buildings was topped with a stone statue of a woman with avian wings—presumably a deity worshipped by the humans. A river flowed through the middle of the town, with multiple wooden boats floating in its waters. Outside the town were large fields containing uniform patches of plants, which the humans were tending to.

_It seems to be a form of food production more advanced than the hunting and gathering done by smaller groups,_ Alipheese analysed. _They remove any unwanted plants or herbivorous insects, while supplying water and nutrient-rich manure to the desired plants. The resulting yields would be larger and more consistent._

"This should be a suitable place for a permanent home," Alipheese said.

"I've only ever heard stories about towns this big…" Minagi murmured. "But I never thought that they actually existed."

"I wonder how they make buildings out of stone?" Hiruko said.

"With this many humans, they could probably breed faster than we could use them up," Kanade said. "There would be no limits to how often we could feed…"

"To construct a town this big, they must have made countless advances in technology," Kanon said. "I can't wait to absorb that knowledge from them."

"Suit yourselves, I have the only man I need," Saja said, hugging her partner.

"Considering the numbers and technology of this group of humans, you five ought to be cautious," Alipheese said. "I can subjugate them on my own."

"Thanks for the offer, but we can still help out," Minagi said. "We just need to be a bit sneakier than usual."

Alipheese still felt a sense of reluctance, but she agreed in order to maximise her daughters' freedom. After a few minutes of discussion, the five monsters carried out their plan.

First, they gathered information. Minagi and Saja flew up to a height where humans could not see them, then observed the town from above. Hiruko removed her clothing and camouflaged herself with such precision that she was able to sneak into the town itself. Once they were done, they returned to convey their findings to the others.

Next, Kanade infiltrated the town via one of the small streams that flowed into the river. She made her way into the town wells, whose locations were among the information gathered, and introduced sedatives into them. She remained within the town to keep track of the situation.

After some tens of minutes, the humans of the town showed signs of lethargy—Kanade's sedatives had begun to take effect. Minagi moved to the west half of the town and released a wave of lust magic, while Kanon moved to the east half and released a cloud of pheromones with a similar effect. Together they subdued almost all of the remaining humans.

Alipheese observed this all from a distance. Once her daughters had performed their roles, she entered the town herself to finish the task. A small minority of the humans—primarily those who were deep inside buildings—still retained their faculties, so Alipheese dealt with them by sedating or assimilating them.

Once she confirmed that none of the humans were capable of resisting, Alipheese announced telepathically to her daughters that it was safe to enter. Kanade was the first to arrive, emerging from a nearby well. A few seconds later, Minagi and Saja flew in. Hiruko was next, using her tentacles to crawl as fast as she could. Kanon was the last one, slowed down by her ungainly roots and by the group of men from the previous village that she was leading.

"Finally!" Minagi said. "I can't wait to try out the new tastes here!"

"Hey, what's that statue over there?" Hiruko said, pointing at the statue on top of the tallest building. "It looks like a monster, but it can't be one, right?"

"Hm? Oh, that's just a statue of Ilias," Minagi said. "She's a goddess—one of light, if I remember correctly—who supposedly watches over humans. The tribe I came from used to worship her as well, but stopped a few generations ago. The wings are apparently a symbol of her being above humans, or something like that."

"Is there any chance that this Ilias will be a problem for us?" Kanon asked, a tinge of concern in her voice. "After all, we've harmed a considerable number of humans—"

"It should be fine, there's no evidence that Ilias even exists," Minagi replied. "A few of the elders from my former village would disagree—if they were still around—but then they'd also claim that the sun rising is because of Ilias. There was one story, about how Ilias sent one of her servants—who also look like humans with bird wings—to teach humans how to use fire, but that's also silly."

Alipheese remained silent. Something in Minagi's words had stirred up uncomfortable memories in her… memories of a certain sensation that she hadn't felt in a long time.

Minagi then began eyeing the townsfolk. "Now, time to feed—huh!? Wait, this is—"

The succubus suddenly stopped in her tracks. She placed one hand on a nearby wall to steady herself… and the other hand on her bulging abdomen.

"What's wrong, Minnie!?" Hiruko asked fearfully. "Don't tell me it's—"

"There is no doubt about these symptoms: she is giving birth," Alipheese stated.

Alipheese immediately took action, carrying out a plan that she'd been preparing ever since Minagi's conception. She selected a house and used dark magic to kill every single microbe inside it. Once she was sure the environment was sterile, she carefully helped Minagi step into the house and sit down on a chair.

The process lasted for just under five hours. Alipheese was concerned due to Minagi giving birth to twins, which had was considerably more dangerous than single birth—and even that wasn't without its risks. She was prepared to intervene with her own power if necessary. Fortunately, there was no need to do so: the birth proceeded through the same stages as a human birth, with no complications, and eventually there were two baby succubi in Alipheese's hands.

The babies had tiny wing buds on their backs, but only a single pair each, unlike their mother's three pairs of wings. They had finger-sized tails which were now waving about slowly. They did not have horns—these would presumably grow in later. Both had thin coverings of hair on their heads, but neither of them shared their mother's hair colour: one had green hair and the other had orange. These colours were presumably contributed by their fathers.

Alipheese cleaned the babies. Using dark energy, she examined the internal workings of them and their mother. As far as she could tell, there were no problems with any of them.

_My past self would have been fascinated if there were such problems—it would provide an opportunity to study the biology of a novel species,_ Alipheese thought. _But now, I am only glad that they are healthy._

Alipheese passed the babies back to their mother. She asked, "How do you feel?"

"I… well, to be honest, I can't think of the words to describe how I'm feeling right now," Minagi replied, turning her head so that her hair covered her face.

After a few minutes, Minagi passed the babies to Hiruko. The scylla held them gently in her tentacles and said, "Aww, they're adorable! I wonder if mine will look like this!"

"In all likelihood, they will," Kanade said. "A better question would be what mine and Kanon's offspring will look like, since we will not produce them through live birth."

"All the evidence suggests that they'll look like smaller versions of us," Kanon said. "Anyway, lighten up! Now's not the time to worry about that!"

Kanade continued acting aloof for a few moments. She eventually gave in and gently touched the babies with her slimy fingers.

"They truly are beautiful," Saja said, when the babies were passed along to her. "Minagi, if you need help in raising them, you have only to ask."

"Thanks for the offer," Minagi replied.

As she watched her daughters coo over her granddaughters, Alipheese thought about all the tasks that she would need to do.

-ooo-

A week later, Hiruko gave birth to three baby scyllas, who diverged from their mother in appearance: while their lower bodies were still comprised of cephalopod tentacles, among these tentacles were several structures that inexplicably resembled canine heads. Apart from this mutation, the babies showed no health issues. Hiruko herself found her babies' appearance to be endearing.

A few days after that, Kanade budded. Two masses split off from her body and formed two smaller slimes. These varied in colour from their mother, with one being green and the other purple, but were similar in their shape and amorphous composition.

A fortnight later, Kanon gave birth to five seeds from her humanoid body. Unlike baseline flowering plants, her seeds were not surrounded in fruit, presumably because a mobile plant did not need any help to disperse its seeds. Over the next few days, the seeds germinated and grew into large plants that, like their mother, had the majority of their aboveground biomass in the form of single enormous flowers. These flowers bloomed to reveal pistils that resembled human girls with green skin.

Saja did not reproduce during this period. However, the abdomen of her humanoid portion swelled immensely, making it clear that it was only a matter of time.

Watching her monsters proliferate and grow, Alipheese felt a sense of pride and joy. However, these days of happiness were eventually interrupted.

-ooo-

One pleasant morning, Alipheese was watching the two baby succubi—the green-haired one had been given the name "Tsuku" while the orange-haired one was named "Kira"—crawl around. She suddenly sensed a faint disturbance at the very edge of her sensory range. It was so faint that none of her five daughters seemed to have noticed it.

Curious, Alipheese closed her eyes—relying on her hearing to keep track of the babies—and focused on her sense for dark energy. Over the next few minutes, the source of the disturbance approached the town. She realised that it was a large group of animals, and then that these animals were humans.

_There's over five hundred of them… it could be an entire nomadic group travelling to their next destination,_ Alipheese thought. _They may stop by this city to trade… that could pose a problem._

Alipheese decided to take care of this problem herself. Her daughters either had children to deal with or, in Saja's case, were expecting to give birth. It was sensible to give them more time to relax and enjoy their new home. She called over Minagi to take care of the babies and then left the town, heading towards the approaching humans.

When the group came into view, Alipheese enhanced her eyes until they were better than an eagle's. She discovered that the humans were not simply travelling towards the town. The vast majority were armed with spears, axes or slings. The remainder carried staves and emitted auras of magical energy—though their power was pitiful in comparison to that of monsters.

Alipheese had observed situations like this many times before—it seemed to be inevitable for any sufficiently social species. She'd seen it in ants and chimpanzees… but this would be the first time she'd seen humans go to war on such a scale.

One of the humans, who appeared to be the leader judging from his elaborate ornaments, raised his spear and shouted, "The demon has come! But with Ilias empowering us, we have nothing to fear! Kill it!"

With frenzied shouts, the humans charged at Alipheese. The shamans stayed at the rear of the group, chanting and striking their staves against the ground.

_So my actions and those of my daughters have led to opposition,_ Alipheese said. _However, they cannot defeat us, no matter how great their numbers. All they will accomplish is to increase our stock of humans._

Alipheese released a wave of dark energy to sedate the humans. It failed: although many of the humans slowed down, they continued their assault.

_The shamans were able to protect against my magic? Intriguing… it seems that humans do have some useful ingenuity._

Several spears were thrown towards Alipheese. From her perspective, the spears were moving at a fraction of the actual speed. They were merely sharpened wooden poles propelled by human strength; under normal circumstances, they would not even penetrate her skin, and she could easily regenerate from any injury she did suffer. However, she sensed a strange power from the tips of the spears. She decided to dodge most of them and catch one by the shaft.

_This power… it's different from my own, yet also familiar. And now that I think about it, the power from those shamans is of the same type._

The humans reached close range. Alipheese used various methods to capture them: binding them in silk, covering them in viscous glue that quickly hardened, knocking them down with sweeping blows of her tail and tentacles, and breathing tranquilising gas on them. She was far more powerful than any of them—but she was not invincible.

A spear struck Alipheese's tail, piercing through the scales and inflicting a burning pain. She knocked down its wielder with a tentacle and then yanked out the spear, but this created an opportunity for another human to strike her in the side with an axe.

_I was right—their weapons are capable of injuring me!_ Alipheese thought, as she picked up the axe-wielding human and crushed his throat. _In that case, I will cease trying to capture them all alive._

Alipheese gathered a large quantity of dark energy and converted it into heat, creating purple flames that spread out explosively. The five humans closest to her were reduced to ash, smoke and steam. Ten more, slightly further away, were reduced to charred bones. And another twelve were hit by the flames but were far enough to survive—though from the way they fell to the ground and screamed, death would have been a better fate.

Only a small portion of its numbers had been killed, yet the army of humans broke and scattered. Their leader and some of the shamans tried calling out to them, tried to maintain order, but to no avail. This was as Alipheese expected: even if humans were intelligent, seeing several of their fellows die in such a fashion was an immense psychological blow.

Of course, Alipheese didn't let such an opportunity go to waste. She captured the leader and the shamans, harming the humans' morale even further, then rounded up the rest.

"Your efforts were meaningless," Alipheese said to the restrained human leader. "I assume your goal was to eliminate myself and my daughters. In that case, you should have seen the evidence of our power and realised that you had no chance of victory."

"You think… after seeing all that… we were just going to sit back and let you demons prey on us?" the human replied.

"It is the only option for your kind," Alipheese said.

"Wrong… there's one more option," the leader said. "Do it!"

In response to this command, the human shamans began radiating magical energy. Alipheese immediately killed all of them, but she was still too late. All of the remaining humans slumped to the ground, the sparks of their lives disappearing.

_…They planned this beforehand,_ Alipheese realised. _They chose death over life as captives. The desire to continue living is one of the most fundamental among living organisms, yet they suppressed it._

Alipheese picked up one of the corpses. From a rational point of view, she should assimilate it for genetic material. But she did not do so, instead releasing the corpse and letting it fall to the ground.

_The humans will not give up. So long as we continue to prey on them, they will continue trying to oppose us._

Alipheese recalled the strange power wielded by the humans. It had protected them from her power and allowed their weapons to injure her. From the pain she'd felt, it seemed to be a clash of fundamental forces—light shining into and banishing the darkness. Then she recalled the human leader's initial words.

_Could it be—no, it can't be. Minagi was right. If the humans truly had a goddess watching over them, why has she not shown herself? And my wounds are already beginning to heal._

_In any case, the humans don't need to face us in combat to harm my progeny—simply killing themselves is enough._

Alipheese sighed. In the early days of her monsterisation experiments, she hadn't expected her daughters' dependence on human males to be a problem. Humans were in no danger of extinction and they obviously lacked the power to resist. Only now did she realise how foolish she was.

_Humans… at first glance, they seem like hairless and more intelligent apes, yet they hold so much irrationality within. How did they ever survive as a species until this point?_

_There's no use dwelling on that now. I must think of a way to prevent such resistance._

_Enthralling the humans is infeasible. To keep them in this state, the enthrallment needs to be regularly renewed. My daughters are already at the limits of their capacity by keeping the town's population under control._

_Could I exterminate most of the human population, reducing it to a manageable size? No, all of my daughters would object to that, such as Kanon not wanting all that knowledge to be destroyed. And it would also greatly reduce human genetic diversity, making them more vulnerable to disease._

_The only proper option… is to moderate our approach towards the humans. We would first need to reduce the number of humans we kill. We would also need to allow them to think and act for themselves, but provide incentives for them to serve us, such as protection from other humans and from wild animals. Minagi became much more cooperative when I allowed her a measure of freedom, and the human mindset is not too far removed from hers. But there is still the issue of the humans outside of our domain… I will need to discuss this with my daughters._

Alipheese disposed of the corpses by incineration. She was about to return to the town when she spotted a small animal in the distance, apparently drawn to the disturbance. It had a long snout, triangular ears, red fur and a long bushy tail—a fox.

_Come to think of it, I was planning on making a sixth daughter at some point. A new perspective would help in the discussion._

After capturing the fox and several other mammals, Alipheese returned to the town. She called over her daughters to explain what had just happened. They were shocked at the news and agreed that they needed to change how they managed the humans. On the other hand, they were eager to witness the creation of their newest sister.

Alipheese finished her preparations. She fused most of the other mammals into the fox and injected a zygote. The transformation was relatively quick and simple compared to the previous ones: the fox's body shifted into a bipedal stance, most of the fur receded, the face flattened into humanoid features. The only significant change was the growth of eight new tails.

The former fox opened her green eyes. Like her older sisters, she reacted to the situation with fear and confusion. She ran off—rather clumsily due to her change in body shape—and hid in a nearby alley.

"Why does she have all those tails?" Hiruko asked. "Not that I'm complaining, since it means nine times the fluff, but won't they get in her way?"

"It is another random mutation, similar to Saja developing a serpentine lower body," Alipheese explained. "It should not be an issue. Thus far, all of the unique traits gained by monsters have been improvements over the original organism."

Alipheese picked up the remaining mammals, left them near the entrance of the alley and moved away.

While they waited for the fox monster to accept the offering, they talked about the issue of names. Saja eventually suggested the personal name "Tamamo-no-Mae", taken from a beast with nine tails that was mentioned in local folklore. This was accepted, though with the caveat that it would be shortened to "Tamamo" in everyday conversation. After that, Minagi suggested the racial name "kitsune", which was the word for "fox" in an old dialect from her native region, and this too was accepted.

-ooo-

Tamamo learned faster than any of her siblings, excluding the originally human Minagi, taking just three weeks to reach the level of an adult human. This was likely helped by Alipheese taking a personal hand in her education, teaching her everything she knew that was relevant to the kitsune's planned role. And as Alipheese predicted, Tamamo's tails didn't impede her at all—she could bend and twist them freely to avoid them catching on objects.

Once her education was complete, Tamamo proved to be extremely adept at her planned role… to the discomfort of her older sisters.

"Minagi, you need to moderate your feeding on humans," Tamamo said sternly. "I know that you need to consume their essence to survive, but as Kanade shows, it's possible to do so without killing them."

"But you killed two just yesterday!" Minagi retorted.

"I did, but those were both so old that they would have died soon regardless," Tamamo replied. "I know you want to grant the ultimate pleasure to your partners, but you need to be more patient, rather than killing off the ones who are still capable of working and breeding. And you also need to moderate your enthrallment of them, as it interferes with their ability to work."

Minagi glared stubbornly at Tamamo.

"Did you not promise mother that you would change your treatment of humans?" Tamamo said.

"…Fine," Minagi said, her wings and tail drooping in disappointment.

Tamamo moved on, with Alipheese following her and observing from a distance. They found Hiruko in the fields outside the town, leading a group of humans with the intention of collecting and classifying all of the insects there.

"Hiruko, please wait for a moment and listen to me," Tamamo said. "These games that you play to satisfy your curiosity are distracting the humans from their work. You can still play them, but I would suggest only bringing along those humans that agree to go along with you."

Hiruko pouted, but eventually agreed.

Tamamo moved on to Kanade. The slime was currently indulging her gluttony on seven humans at once, taking advantage of her ability to create additional bodies.

"Kanade, can you listen to me for a moment?" Tamamo asked.

While clearly displeased at the interruption, Kanade nevertheless turned one of her faces towards her youngest sister and replied, "What is the issue?"

"From what I've seen, you spend little effort on feeding, so you could potentially work on other duties during that time," Tamamo said. "For example, you could read through the latest reports and sign them."

Tamamo used one of her tails to hold up a bundle of paper—a material derived from plant fibres that was extremely useful for writing and drawing on. This was one of the innovations she'd introduced recently, building off Kanon's use of paper for recording history.

"I believe that working during your meals would also increase your enjoyment of them, just like physical exercise does," Tamamo continued.

After some thought, Kanade accepted the proposal.

Next was Kanon. She posed a similar problem for the management of humans as Minagi did, and Tamamo resolved this in the same way, by having her limit her lethal feeding only to those humans who would soon die regardless. Aside from that, Tamamo encouraged Kanon to continue her role as the official historian for monsters, and also suggested that she be in charge of food production.

Finally, there was Saja. Unlike her older sisters, she didn't do anything that hindered the goal of building a better relationship with humans, instead spending most of her time with her husband. Tamamo was nevertheless able to convince her to contribute more to the community, by pointing out that she could improve her bond with her husband if they worked together on the same things.

After Tamamo had spoken to all five of her sisters, Alipheese asked her, "Do you wish to rest? You have been working continuously since dawn."

"Thank you for the offer, mother, but there's no need," Tamamo replied. She pulled out a local snack, one made by coagulating soy milk and frying the result, and began munching on it. "As long as I have enough food, I can keep working until nightfall."

"…Very well."

"And if I may offer a suggestion, I think you should consider adopting a shorter nickname," Tamamo said. "It would help the humans accept you. What about 'Alice'?"

"That is a sensible suggestion… I accept," Alipheese replied.

Alipheese continued following Tamamo around for the entire day. As promised, she did not cease her duties until night arrived.

On the other hand, when night did arrive, Tamamo allowed herself to indulge. She chose three young and healthy men and, using a single gesture of her head, directed them to follow her into a house. No mental alteration was necessary; the allure of the kitsune's naked form was enough for them to eagerly comply.

-ooo-

After a month, the town was completely transformed.

The humans no longer wandered around in a blissful delirium, needing monster oversight to perform any complex tasks. Minagi had mostly lifted her enthrallment—thought not entirely, as the humans continued to have their minds subtly nudged into accepting monsters. Still, it was enough to make the humans much more useful as workers.

The physical structure of the town was also modified. A school, where children could receive a better education, was built near the centre of the town—Hiruko's contribution. The sewerage system was improved and several bathhouses were built to improve public health—Kanade's contribution. The farms were replanted with enhanced crops that were resistant to diseases and pests—Kanon's contribution. Many of the buildings were rebuilt with larger doors and higher ceilings to be more accommodating to monsters—Saja's contribution.

Alipheese examined the town from the roof of its tallest building. The scenery before her exceeded her expectations by an immense margin. Her youngest daughter had managed to make the humans accept the monsters as leaders of the town, in a manner that would discourage further hostilities, and even secured the cooperation of her sisters.

_I must reward Tamamo for this. Hmm… in large groups, human leaders often have one or more advisors, to ensure that they enact the best policies. I should make Tamamo my advisor… speaking of which—_

Alipheese spotted Tamamo in a nearby street. A moment later, Hiruko appeared, wearing new attire that she'd created recently: a red dress with gold buttons and white trim, with matching hat and boots. She approached Tamamo and passed her a bundle of cloth, saying that it was a gift. The kitsune thanked her and donned the clothing.

Now, Tamamo wore an elaborate garment that suited someone of her capabilities. The upper portion of the garment was white with red lining, with a low hem that exposed her shoulders and cleavage, and also long sleeves that widened towards the ends. The lower portion was a violet skirt that reached all the way down to her ankles.

_Out of my children, only two of them wear clothing—and neither is the one modified from an animal that already wore clothing. Is this what it means to be an individual?_

Smiling slightly, Alipheese looked up at the sky. She watched the clouds change shape and slowly drift across the azure space.

_Now that we have a solid base, it is time to expand the territory of monsterkind until it covers the world._


	8. Chapter 8: Towards the Light

_AN: Sorry for the delay, I've been busy in real life, while my spare time has mostly been spent playing MGQ: Paradox. I also wanted to make this chapter as good as it can be, since it's the very last one._

* * *

The planet that Alipheese had made her home possessed three continents: one near the north pole, one just south of the equator, and one in between the former two. The central continent was the largest by far and was where Alipheese had created her daughters via monsterisation. It and the southern continent were the only ones inhabited by humans, and thus the most suitable for monster settlement. The northern continent was a cold and dry wasteland with barely any plant life. However, Alipheese chose to part with her daughters and move to the northern continent, with the goal of making even this barren land into a home for monsters.

First, there was the issue of the continent being lined by mountains, making it nearly impossible to access except by air. Alipheese spent a week constructing a port where boats and swimming monsters could land. She then spent several days constructing a path through the mountains. This would not only allow people to colonise the continent but also ensure a stable food supply, due to the abundance of fish in the surrounding sea.

She then searched around until she found an area that had relatively little snow. She landed and confirmed that this was a volcanic hotspot—an area that was heated up by an upwelling of magma underneath the planet's crust. She dug a hole until she exposed an aquifer, creating a hot spring, then piled up and compressed the earth to build walls around said hot spring. After a few days, she had created a large building with multiple rooms. This would serve as the primary base of monsters on the continent.

However, Alipheese still wasn't satisfied. She searched around until she found another hotspot, this one located towards the south. There was no aquifer here, so Alipheese had to dig out a massive trench leading to the hotspot from a nearby glacier. After two days, she'd succeeded in creating a river. She then altered the chemical composition of the nearby soil to make it more fertile and planted special seeds, which had been enhanced by Kanon to grow in such conditions. After a few months, the barren tundra had been transformed into verdant meadows and groves of trees. This would serve as the primary base of humans on the continent.

Another problem, which Alipheese discovered when she tried and failed to do it, was that she was unable to telepathically communicate with her daughters due to the sheer distance. It was not an insurmountable problem—further research should make it possible to project telepathic waves across intercontinental distances—but currently they would only be able to communicate by meeting in person. Alipheese took a break from her work to revisit her daughters and tell them about this, then returned to the northern continent.

_Come to think of it, I should give this continent a name,_ Alipheese thought as she landed on the continent. _My daughters already came up with one for the central continent—"Sentora"—and if I plan on settling monsters and humans here as well, a name would be helpful._

Alipheese spent several hours thinking—there was nothing in this empty landscape to interrupt her. She considered hundreds of options, combining and splitting up existing words. Eventually, she came up with a name that was both imposing yet also simple to say and to write: "Hellgondo".

-ooo-

Over the next twenty years, Alipheese continued her work, building new structures and expanding existing ones. Her daughters visited on average once every six months, telling her of how they'd spread out from the town and colonised the entirety of Sentora. In the latter half of this time period, her granddaughters began to migrate to Hellgondo, bringing humans with them. They called her various respectful epithets such as "Founder", "Dark Goddess", "Monster Lord" and "The First".

When there were over a thousand monsters on Hellgondo, Alipheese was satisfied. Some of her granddaughters had managed to give birth to male human offspring, though these inherited a few monster genes. This made it easier to establish a permanent settlement on the continent—though human women were still kept here, to ensure that the human population could be maintained. On the other hand, her granddaughters showed signs of ageing on a cellular level, meaning that they would eventually age and die unlike their progenitors. Still, the pace of monster reproduction was fast enough that this wouldn't be a significant problem.

_I've done virtually all there is to do here. If I continue, there's a chance that development will be too influenced by the preferences of a single person. Just like limited genetic diversity, that is a path towards stagnation and death. I can leave Hellgondo to my granddaughters for now._

_Hmm… it has been a while since I last saw my daughters._

Alipheese reviewed the most recent information on her daughters. She decided to visit Tamamo first, due to some concerning rumours originating from her territory.

After a few hours of flight, Alipheese arrived at the northeast region of Sentora, a region that was heavily forested. Here she discovered two human armies, each numbering more than a thousand, clashing. They used weapons considerably superior to those of twenty years ago, being made of silvery metal instead of wood, stone or bone, and wore protective armour made from the same material.

_This metal… iron? From the experiments I performed long ago, I know that high temperatures are required to smelt iron, higher than an average fire can produce. Human technology has certainly advanced in the past few years… but more importantly, why has Tamamo not stopped this conflict?_

Suddenly, Alipheese noticed a familiar dark energy signature. She followed it to its source, landing on the summit of a nearby hill. Here she found Tamamo-no-Mae, the first kitsune.

"Welcome to my territory, mother," Tamamo said, standing up and bowing.

"It has been a while—however, what is going on?" Alipheese asked. "Why are the humans fighting each other, and why are you merely watching instead of stopping them?"

"I was actually planning on explaining this on my next visit to you, but this saves some time," Tamamo replied. "I've been thinking about how to manage humans for the past twenty years. Under our rule, they are safe from harm, but that means they risk growing stagnant. A few years ago, I came up with the idea of making the humans fight against each other, by influencing their minds with a small amount of lust magic. This ensures that the weak are eliminated from the gene pool and only the strong survive, improving humanity as a whole."

"That is a sensible idea… though I must ask, is there any chance that this will threaten the human population?" Alipheese said.

"I took that into consideration as well," Tamamo replied. "It's the reason why I always observe the battles myself, like I'm doing right now. However, most of the time there's no need for me to intervene. One of the armies surrenders or flees after taking a few casualties. Look, that's happening now."

Tamamo pointed towards the battle using her tails. Indeed, one of the armies was now at a clear disadvantage. Most of this army's soldiers threw down their weapons, some in order to surrender, others in order to flee. A few held onto their weapons and continued fighting, resulting in them being cut down. The battle came to an end, with the living outnumbering the dead by a factor of five.

"I also make sure that the fighting doesn't spill over into my sisters' territories," Tamamo continued. "And when they come over to visit, I let them have their pick of the strongest humans, those who've proven themselves in battle."

Eventually, Alipheese agreed with Tamamo's actions. They were similar to her own desire to prevent stagnation amongst monsters, and they helped maintain unity among her daughters. She therefore moved on.

Less than an hour later, Alipheese arrived at a large town. Three roads led out of the town and into the distance, presumably towards other towns. At first glance, the town appeared to be flooded. However, on closer inspection, she noticed that the "water" was unnaturally blue and moving against gravity.

Alipheese landed on the roof of a house. She now saw that there were countless men floating within the slime, their faces locked in expressions of unthinking bliss. After a few moments, a humanoid body formed out of the flood of slime near her.

"It has been a long time, mother," Kanade said.

"Indeed," Alipheese said. "However… is all of this part of your body?"

"It is," Kanade confirmed. "I discovered that I alone can do all of the work in this town, provided that I receive sufficient energy. It's more efficient than having humans work. The humans here also agreed to it, and I make sure that they are as healthy as possible."

"And of course, it gives you justification to feed on them constantly," Alipheese said. "More importantly, if all of this is part of you, where are your daughters?"

"They are in the other towns of my territory," Kanade replied. "They manage their humans in a manner closer to that of my sisters, giving them more autonomy. I send some of my bodies to inspect those towns on a regular basis, as well as to pick up any men who wish to join me."

"You seem to have your affairs in order," Alipheese said. "In that case, I will not take up any more of your time."

Alipheese took off. She briefly visited the nearby towns, confirming that they were indeed as Kanade had described them, and moved on to her next destination.

_Even when permitted free will, some humans still willingly choose a life of eternal submission,_ Alipheese thought. _Humans never cease to intrigue me… perhaps I should have spent more time studying humans in their natural state before beginning my experiments._

Next was the sea off the north coast of Sentora. Alipheese spent several hours flying above the surface of the water. She eventually located her target and dove in.

Travelling along the seabed were Hiruko and over twenty of her offspring. There was considerable diversity among said offspring: only three of them were scyllas like their mother, with the rest showing traits of other aquatic animals ranging from crustaceans to cnidarians.

Hiruko looked up and pointed at Alipheese with a tentacle, saying, "Hey, children, look! Your grandmother's coming to visit!"

"Really? This is my first time seeing her!"

"She's huge!"

"Calm down, be polite to her—"

Alipheese descended to the seabed and greeted the children. She talked to Hiruko and learned that the scylla was travelling around the world to see the sights. She and her children had been to coral reefs, submarine caverns, kelp forests, undersea mountains, even a deep sea trench on one occasion. And whenever Hiruko found a man whose personality she found interesting, she mated with him to add to her family.

"So far, I've had a total of fifty two children," Hiruko said. "Not all of them are here with me because some wanted to stay where they were born, and some wanted to stay behind in one of the places we pass through. But I always make sure that they know how to live on their own before leaving them."

Once she was satisfied, Alipheese left Hiruko and returned to the surface. She flew towards the south.

The southwest region of Sentora was primarily desert. Here Alipheese discovered a large pyramid constructed from granite blocks. Although clearly artificial, it was larger than any human building, being close to a small mountain in size. The south face of the pyramid contained a large opening with no doors. Alipheese landed here and entered the pyramid.

The main inhabitants of the pyramid were monsters with avian and reptilian features. These also showed a diversity of traits: some had avian wings and legs, some had the lower bodies of snakes, some were covered in scales and had digits terminating in claws, and a few had snakes for hair. The remainder of the inhabitants were humans. All of them parted respectfully as Alipheese proceeded through the pyramid.

In a large room at the top floor of the pyramid, Alipheese met the fifth of her daughters. Saja was sitting on her own coiled tail and embracing a man with one wing. Notably, said man was different than the one she'd chosen before, having green hair instead of red.

"Welcome, mother," Saja said. "Have you been doing well?"

"I have, thank you," Alipheese replied. "You appear to have been successful as well, judging from this structure and your many children. Though if I may ask, who is the man next to you?"

"This is Saron, and he is a local to this area," Saja explained. "My last husband, Gerun, died a few months ago…his heart was growing weak near the end. I mourned him for several weeks. But just last month, I met Saron, and we knew the moment we saw each other that we were ideal partners. Isn't that right, Saron?"

"Yes, that's right," Saron said, in a manner that suggested he'd done so many times before.

_The previous man was still fairly young when I last saw him…_ Alipheese thought. _It is likely that Saja's attentions were slightly too intense, hastening his death._

Paying no more attention to this topic, Alipheese talked to Saja about her management of her territory. Saja planned to expand and build more settlements throughout the desert, primarily around the few oases. The discussion lasted until dusk and Alipheese decided to stay in the pyramid for the night.

The next morning, Alipheese left the pyramid and headed east. The desert gave way to grassy plains. Eventually, she discovered an unnatural expanse of vegetation that contained seemingly every species occurring on the planet. Wetland sedges and desert cacti coexisted, as did tropical palms and boreal conifers.

Following the trail of dark energy, Alipheese arrived at a town in the centre of the strange vegetation. The buildings of the town were large trees, reshaped by magic into forms more suitable for habitation. The population was mainly plant monsters, who were either rooted in the ground to enjoy the sun or walking around on their roots.

In the centre of the town was a large tree with a sign at the front indicating that this was Kanon's residence. Alipheese landed and went inside. There were countless wooden shelves in every direction, and every single one of them was filled with books—a recent invention, these were bundles of paper glued together along one side and used to record information. Kanon herself was nestled in between two of the bookshelves, using her hands and tendrils to sort the books.

Alipheese spent a few minutes conversing with her fourth daughter. Kanon had been busy with developing the expanse of vegetation, taking care of her offspring and building up her collection of books.

"—it can be a pain sometimes, I'll admit," Kanon said. "Still, I have lots of people to help me, so it never gets too much for me to handle."

At that moment, an elderly human man entered the building. He was surprised at Alipheese's presence, but nevertheless looked towards Kanon and said, "Lady Kanon, is this a bad time?"

"No, no, we were just finishing up," Kanon said, licking her lips. "I was just thinking that it was time to add a new book to my collection…"

Kanon extended her carnivorous organs towards the man, who was looking giddy at the prospect of being consumed. With nothing else to discuss, Alipheese left the building and took to the air.

Eventually, Alipheese arrived at a town that was built for a population capable of flight. The buildings were tall, with doors in the upper walls and roofs covered in vegetation. Most of the monster population were succubi, though a few were a different race of monster. This new race strongly resembled human women, but with red eyes, sharp canine teeth, and a black membrane surrounding their bodies. These were vampires: an offshoot of succubi who had lost most of their inhuman features, but gained a thirst for blood.

A succubus with blue skin and black hair flew up to meet Alipheese. She bowed her head and said, "Welcome to Babylon, Dark Goddess. What brings you here today?"

"I am here to visit my daughter and observe her progress," Alipheese replied.

The succubus nodded and led Alipheese to a large space in the northern part of the town. Here, Minagi was currently training in martial arts by sparring against five other succubi at once. When she saw Alipheese approaching, Minagi defeated all five of her opponents with a single sweeping kick. She then picked up a white ribbon from a nearby bench and wrapped it around her body, in a manner that emphasised her figure rather than concealing it.

"So you've finally decided to visit, mother?" Minagi said. She spread her arms wide. "Well, what do you think of Babylon?"

"It seems to be managed quite well," Alipheese said. "The population is large and growing, without any problems such as crime or discontentment among the humans."

"It's not like I spend all of my time having sex, mother," Minagi said, rolling her eyes. "Anyway, how have you been lately?"

"I am currently visiting all of my daughters to observe their current status," Alipheese replied. "I have already visited the other five."

"Really, you left me for last?" Minagi said. "And here I thought you actually cared about me."

"I did not mean to—it was only because you are the furthest from—"

Minagi burst into laughter. "Come on, it's just a joke! You didn't do anything wrong, I understand your reasons."

Alipheese let out a sigh of relief. She talked with Minagi for a while, then flew around the town of Babylon to inspect it in more detail. After a few hours, she was satisfied and began to return to Hellgondo.

As she flew through the cool air, Alipheese was lost in thought.

_All six are fine, as are their children and grandchildren. At this rate, it will not be long before monsters outnumber humans._

_Hmm… I previously decided to stop at six, since I wished to focus on expanding our territory. But now that is complete, and there are no remaining challenges to monster dominance. I can try making more. Insects are an interesting possibility… there are so many different species that even I have not discovered all of them._

_But first, I need to find a human man and mate with him. I no longer have any of the sperm needed to make zygotes. Without it, I cannot perform monsterisation. I am similar to my progeny in this aspect, needing a male to create new life…_

This thought caused Alipheese to remember that moment, over twenty years ago, when she'd first tried to create a monster. She'd abandoned the option of gestating the zygote herself, since its chimeric genome would prevent it from developing properly. However, Alipheese now had detailed knowledge of monster biology, including monster gestation.

_In theory, I should be able to make one now… a true daughter of my own. Not that my existing daughters are suboptimal in any way, but a daughter of this type would inherit more of my genes and, in all likelihood, more of my inherent darkness. Yet she still would not be a clone of myself, thanks to the input of human genetic material._

_Yes… it is something I must do. After I create the first insect monster, I shall begin work on this…_

-ooo-

Minagi tilted the waterskin and drank the last of its contents. She handed it to the blue-skinned succubus standing next to her.

"Will you be continuing your training, mother?" the blue-skinned succubus asked.

"No, I've had enough for today," Minagi replied. "You can stop for today as well, Lilim."

"Thank you, mother," Lilim said, before walking away.

Minagi headed to her home, a large tower in the centre of Babylon. She reached her bedroom and closed the curtains. Once she was away from any prying eyes, Minagi punched a wall with enough force to crack it.

_Hah… I still can't get used to it. I'll never be able to talk to that _monster_ without letting out my frustration like this._

Minagi sat down on her bed and took several deep breaths. However, she still couldn't let go of the feelings boiling away within her heart.

Twenty years ago, Alipheese had little knowledge of humans. She had watched them from afar, but she'd never spoken to one prior to her monsterisation of Minagi. Consequently, she had little knowledge of the subtleties of human communication. She'd improved over time, but this was of no help when a former human had been deceiving her from the start.

Ever since that time, ever since Alipheese had led Minagi into killing her own lover and then the rest of her village, there was never any hope of a proper relationship between the two.

_She doesn't understand… she never understood that I might hate her for that. But of course she wouldn't. She used to eat humans like she did any other animal, and even now she doesn't care about humans except in a pragmatic sense._

Minagi closed her eyes. Even now, she could picture the faces of her friends, family, lover, everyone she'd known growing up. But she could only keep them there for a few seconds before they were replaced by shrivelled corpses.

_I'm a monster as well… that's something I can't change. I've killed enough people to populate a large town. I can't bring them back to life… but I can make sure that their deaths weren't in vain._

After the unwitting massacre of her own village, Minagi had decided to feign obedience to Alipheese. She kept her true feelings hidden, waiting for an opportunity to strike. She had seen potential in the other monsters created by the dark elemental: if she could teach them to follow her way of thinking, she could obtain their help in rebelling against their abusive mother. As part of this, she had asked them what they thought of their mother during the moments when said mother was absent. Unfortunately, all of them turned out to be aligned with Alipheese.

_It must be because they were originally just dumb animals, plants or—what was the word again?—slime mould. They don't care about humans either. They just see them as toys, food, sources of information, or "husbands". And I also couldn't get my own daughters to agree with me—my "mother" and "sisters" had too much involvement in their education._

Eventually, Minagi had been trapped. There were no physical restraints on her body, but still she was trapped within the expectations of her monstrous family. If she tried to change her behaviour, tried to stop acting as a literal sexual predator, they would definitely notice. And even aside from those expectations, she still suffered from an unending thirst for male essence.

_But I can't give up. I'm the only one in a position to do anything about her. If I give up, the world will be ruled forever by monsters._

_That's right… I have to do something. But I won't accomplish anything by myself, and my "sisters" won't help… so how about I create my own allies? I've been watching _her_ work right from the beginning, I should be able to do something similar. I'm not a twisted mixture like her, so I won't be able to make something too different from myself, but it should be possible for me to make succubi… and if I pay attention to their development, I should be able to make them powerful—not as powerful as myself, but powerful enough—and to make them loyal to me._

Minagi sat at her desk, pulled out paper, quill, and ink, and began writing down her plans.

_Three should be a good number… any more would take too much out of me. And they should each specialise in something different, so they can cover each other's weaknesses. One in pleasure magic, one in unarmed fighting, one in swordfighting…_

After just twenty minutes, Minagi had filled out several sheets of paper with her plans. To keep them organised, she used a different colour for each of her planned creations: purple, red and blue.

-ooo-

Castor shivered. It was possible that he'd be caught at any moment—if the monsters discovered he was missing, they would never let a healthy young man like him escape. Still, he forced himself to keep moving, to keep following the succubus in front.

"Almost… almost… We're here!" Lilim declared.

Castor looked up to see light. He and Lilim emerged from the tunnel into open woods. He turned back, but Babylon was not visible due to the distance and the obscuring trees.

"You should be safe now… at least from us monsters," Lilim said.

"Th-thank you," Castor said. "How can I repay you for this?"

"It's fine, you don't have to do anything," Lilim said. "In the first place, it's our fault for keeping you humans like livestock. You shouldn't have to suffer all this to begin with… Anyway, there are rumours of other free humans hiding in the hills to the east of here. I'm not sure if those rumours are true, but if you can find them…"

"Got it, thanks," Castor said.

Lilim returned to the tunnel and disappeared. She would return to Babylon, back to her duty as the servant of the Great Whore. He would never see her again.

Castor shook his head. There was no sense in remaining here and risking being captured—that would only waste Lilim's efforts. He checked his bag again—it contained a knife, flint and steel, dried bread and fruit, and spare clothes—and began walking towards the east. As he walked, he thought about what life had been like in Babylon.

At first glance, life in Babylon was a paradise for a man. He would never have to worry about famine or sickness or war, and there were countless succubi and vampires eager to give him indescribable pleasures. If he was particularly lucky, he would be able to enter the bed of Minagi, the Great Whore of Babylon, the most experienced and the most insatiable succubus. Once he reached the end of his lifespan, he would then experience the ultimate pleasure of having his life itself drained from his flesh.

But two months ago, Lilim had freed Castor from the mental manipulation of her fellow monsters. This had allowed the young man to see what Babylon truly was.

One of his friends had been approached by a lustful succubus, but he wasn't in the mood at the time. The succubus had ramped up her seduction magic until said friend agreed, then proceeded to ride him in the street.

Another friend, this one a scholar, had been involved in an academic debate with a vampire. After considerable argument, the vampire lost her patience and bit him in the neck. The pleasure of vampiric feeding had broken the friend's will.

These were simply the two cases that were most familiar to Castor. He had seen many more in the past two months. All of it had led him to realise the true nature of the freedom in Babylon: it was the freedom for monsters to do as they pleased with humans.

Remembering all this filled Castor with a burning anger. He wanted to give in to his primal instincts and take revenge on the monsters, to make them pay for all they had done to his kind. But his anger cooled as he realised the hopelessness of the situation. He was only one weak human, up against countless monsters with superhuman capabilities. For that matter, he was shorter and weaker than any of the other men he knew, tilting the odds even further against him.

_I can't fight them. I can't beat even a single one of them. And even if these free humans really exist and even if I can meet up with them, we still wouldn't stand a chance against even a small village of monsters._

_…But what if it wasn't just humans on our side?_

Castor remembered the succubus who had just helped him escape. When she'd first freed him and allowed him to see the truth, he was naturally suspicious of her intentions. He'd wondered if she was the kind of monster who enjoyed betraying men before raping them. But this suspicion turned out to be unfounded.

_Not all monsters are like that… there's at least one who isn't like that, and with so many monsters in the world, there have to be others. If I could find them, get their help…_

_No. No, that's a stupid idea. There's no guarantee that any more good monsters exist, and even if they did, how would I find them?_

Shaking his head, Castor continued walking towards the east. After a couple of hours, he felt hungry and so stopped to eat.

While sitting on the side of a hill and munching on bread, Castor looked out at the landscape. A gentle breeze stirred his purple hair.

_More importantly, the rumours of free humans… there can't be too many of them if they've managed to hide from the monsters. Still, I can't survive out here on my own. I need to find them. It'll be a tough life… but it's better than staying and being the plaything of monsters._

Castor remembered the other humans back in Babylon… the ones he'd left behind. He clenched his fists.

_No, I can't. I can't do anything to help them._

_I'm not a hero, after all._

* * *

_AN: This is the end of Dark Genesis. I should emphasise that this is ultimately just my version of events, it is not meant to fit canon 100%._

_Minagi being rebellious is something I planned ever since the beginning. A human woman who was suddenly transformed into a monster with a thirst for semen is hardly going to like the one responsible for this. Of course, we currently don't have details on how the Six Ancestors were actually made, so my portrayal will almost certainly end up contradicting canon. _

_As for Castor… it should be fairly obvious who he is, or rather, who he's related to._

_My next story will be "Holy Genesis", and it'll be the direct opposite of this in that it will feature Ilias as the main character._


End file.
